


Some Kind Of Madness

by cutestpixieyoueversaw



Series: Hecate's Curse [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Vernon Boyd & Erica Reyes, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Androgyny, As in no matter what Stiles and Derek are going to be together, BAMF Derek Hale, BAMF Stiles, BAMF in general, Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, Emissaries, Endgame is Sterek, F/F, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Fairy Tale Elements, Families of Choice, Jackson is Part of the Pack, Kidnapped Stiles, M/M, Magic, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Multi, Non-Canonical Violence, Pack Dynamics, Pack Feels, Pain, Seelie Court, Tattooed Stiles Stilinski, Tattoos, Unseelie Court, more may be added later - Freeform, season 3 didn't happen the way it did
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-11-28
Packaged: 2018-01-09 19:32:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1149940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutestpixieyoueversaw/pseuds/cutestpixieyoueversaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>****WARNING: Story is currently being rewritten and organized until November/December 2017. Deletions and additions will happen in the meantime***</p><p>Stiles apparently has a type. You know unfairly attractive for this worldly plane while having perhaps some of the best wit around? The kind of wit that could be spoken with only facial expressions. Bonus if they gave Einstein a run for his money. Oh he forgot to add Alpha because it was now a thing, perhaps even a kink if he was going to be really honest with himself.</p><p>Or the one where Stiles realizes that his life should be a MTV show because the drama he has is worthy of cable television.</p><p>Or the one where Stiles meets another pack and gets to understand that Bella and Sookie really had the worst luck ever and he is not them but really it's reading like he is.</p><p> <br/>P.S. Tinkerbell is a bitch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cover

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [When There’s Blood On Your Tongue (And You’re Ready For War)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/492760) by [ShadowsLament](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowsLament/pseuds/ShadowsLament). 



> So this was inspired by "When There’s Blood On Your Tongue (And You’re Ready For War)". More to the point this was inspired by one character in particular named Blue in this fic. It's a wonderful fic and I just LOVED the whole idea that Stiles is pretty much catnip to werewolves, mainly alphas. You should go read that fic, and maybe the on-going series if you like it. Now past this inspiration there is NOTHING similar between the two fics. This is just me exploring this world and plot I've been itching to try.
> 
> Edit: As of 1/24/14 this story is now beta'd by the wonderful **[Momo](http://archiveofourown.org/users/momorune/) **. Any other mistakes you see are all on me.

 


	2. Wrong

_"...I was in the wrong place_  
_At the wrong time_  
_For the wrong reason_  
_And the wrong rhyme_  
_On the wrong day_  
_Of the wrong week…"_  
_(Wrong-Depeche Mode)  
_..................................................................... 

It's telling of the life Stiles lives that he isn't really surprised to wake up in a holding cell after getting abducted from the parking lot of a club. He wasn’t even surprised to realize his wrist were shackled and chained to the wall. _Life choices man._

Stiles blinked a few times to try to clear his head while the rest of his body caught up to the fact that it was alive still. He looked around his cell noticing that someone else, two somebodies, were with him. They looked beat up with bruises and dried blood over their clothing and body. Thinking he needed to know how badly he was hurt before he started planning any way to escape, Stiles started to check himself to the best of his current abilities to figure out how bad it was this time. It felt like there was dried blood on the side of his head, he really had to get better hobbies if he had an intimate knowledge of what dried blood on your head felt like. Stretching and bending the rest of his body he felt a few cuts here and there but relatively he felt alright. 

Sitting back against the wall, Stiles tried to figure out a way to get the chains off. He already knew his normal means of getting out, yes he has lived the last two years of his life in questionable ways you don't have to remind him thank you, were not going to work. His back pocket, where he kept the lock picks and other perfectly harmless but really useful odds and ends, was empty meaning he couldn't go ahead and use that path to escape. He tried the chains next, shaking them up and down and trying to measure the space and pull it. It was tight enough that he wouldn't be able to just slightly push his fingers out their sockets to slip out. He was going to have to break a bone or two if he really wanted to get out. He considered the fact that he might need a new life if he knew it wouldn't be an issue, he had done it once or twice before. Stiles only had one problem with his little plan. Self-experience told him that it was a pain in the ass to do anything else once you did it. He was lacking in supernatural healing and going on what he saw so far, he wouldn't have any backup once he escaped the cuffs. He nodded to himself after a few more minutes of contemplation; he was going to have to be a little bit patient. He had no clue where he was, no idea why he had been taken exactly, and he wasn't sure what he would do after he got out of wherever he was.

Did Stiles mention that one of the hardest things he ever had to do was to sit still and wait for something to happen? That it was like a physical reminder of all the times he would be forced to wait in the hospital to see his mother slipping closer and closer to death's door? That it reminded him of all the nights he would stay up waiting for his dad to get home; praying to a God he wasn't even sure he believed in, much less one that listened to him, for his last parent to live past this night? Knowing that all he could do was wait and let the Fates deal with it? The same Fates which so far had showed him little love if this was the life he was dealt in the luck of cards.

_No?_

Oh well.

* * *

Stiles opened eyes that he had no memory of closing and found himself in another room tied to a chair. His mouth was dry like there was cotton stuck inside- it was a nice tell that there was a high chance of being drugged. He considered trying to talk but thought better of it, conserving his breath for when it was needed. You know the drill-screaming until your throat feels like it's bleeding as much to express your pain and to hope that maybe you'll finally be able to just pass out from the pain. He was going to need more than new hobbies if he wanted to get out of a life where he could write a handout or really let's be honest, a damn _New York Times_ bestseller novel,  on the best and worst ways to deal with being kidnapped and tortured.

There was one light in the room and it hung above his head. Someone was going for cliché much. He tried upsetting the wooden chair only to find out that it was actually bolted down. Whoever had him here had imagination and had obviously planned ahead for any what ifs; he felt the little tingle of spark that told him the chair was made of mountain ash. He sighed thinking that this in so many ways had gotten worse now; he couldn't even lie to himself that this wasn't a supernatural issue. This had supernatural spray painted with red all over it. His life, ladies and gentleman, one adventure after another.

He barely had time to register the rustling of what sounded like light brushes of fabric against skin before he felt the slam of a needle jam itself into his neck. Stiles gasped silently trying to keep still lest he jerk too hard and break the needle. Turning his head the moment it was removed he had just a second to glimpse the curling smile of his captor.

Fucking  _fairies_.

* * *

It was just his luck, more a lack of it, that this was happening to him.

This will be good for you Stiles. Don't worry about anything Stiles. I know the area Stiles and nothing will happen to you Stiles. You're too paranoid Stiles. Who cares if you're going to be in another state Stilinski? You're going to be alright Mr. Stilinski, there'll be just a few witches at the house you're staying at nothing more. You're going to have the most boring summer ever. You're going to miss not having action in your life. Nothing will go wrong. 

Obviously everyone and their mother was wrong if this was the peaceful, normal, and boring training vacation they all proclaimed it to be. This was everything Stiles secretly (not so secretly) feared would happen to him. He was so freaking right. Anything that can go wrong will eventually go wrong.

Deaton had suggested it right before school ended and the fumes of happiness, 'senior year here we come' and 'we're alive still', could settle and make Stiles think about just staying home and soaking up a nice and perhaps last, pack full summer. It sounded like a nice deal; two months in Oregon with a known and old coven of witches, druids, and sparks who could help him to refine what ability he possessed and hopefully give him better direction into what he was. Apparently Stiles wasn't a hundred percent  _normal_  homo sapien, he was something that was a bit witchy, spark, and something else completely magical that Deaton thought it best if he met others. The man already had his hands full with Lydia, who apparently was a necromancer banshee and was inclined to think it was a nice idea to try to drag Peter back to the grave. "I brought him above, I can send him back below." was the last thing Stiles heard her yell once she got the hang of things and disappeared with intent to destroy.

The thing is, it was perfect. It was beyond perfect. For the first time in two years Stiles finally felt like he had some measure of control in his life. He didn't have to hide any of his interests to only his former lovers, he didn't have to keep second guessing himself-wondering what was happening to him, and for the first time since his mother died, he could ask all the questions he wanted and get smiles instead of sighs, eye rolls, or snarls. They embraced him as someone special and interesting. He learned so much about everything, granted he didn't know what he was yet but it was going so well he didn't care. In the light of a pregnant moon that shimmered and bloomed Stiles could be honest with himself, he thought about never going back to Beacon Hills. He felt horrible the next day for thinking it. But in those moments, when it felt as if he could do anything and choose any path without any ramifications? He was ready to run away to this paradise.

The world decided that he needed to have a reality check.

Life thought it would be _cute_ and remind him what kind of bitch it was.

Stiles got the message loud and clear. Nothing lasts forever, especially when it’s as good as it was for the past few days.

* * *

Pain like hundreds of wasps stinging and claws ripping into his skin yanked him by the throat back to the world of the aware. He tried catching his breath only to wince when he moved his mouth; lips split and raw with pain. Breathing hurt, like a dull and shattering pain that worked its way inside out. He didn't have to lift his shirt to know that one of his ribs was bruised or near broken; Gerard gave him first-hand experience with the feeling. Stiles only wished he could actually know the full extent of his damage; it would make it easier to plan a way to get out of this.

"You're finally awake. And here I was thinking that I would finally have a silent audience." Stiles jerked his head around to stare at his captor. He had forgotten about her while cataloguing his injuries. The fairy, or perhaps pixie, stood dressed like a homeless hipster Tinkerbell. She was boney thin with eyes that flickered colors worse than Derek's ever managed to do on his magical princess days. He squinted at her trying to figure out why she looked so damn familiar. The last time the pack had played (which really that's using the word in the worst possible way one can) with a member of the fae, kids were getting abducted left and right because the music told them to come. Needless to say that particular fae had a nice late permanent dinner date with death.

"So, what happened to you? Did Peter Pan get tired of you when he grew up?” he started.

It probably wasn’t the smartest idea of an opening to use, all things considered. You know pissing off the villain who is in control of the pain you’re getting is never a good idea. Sure Stiles could claim he was clever but he could never say the same for his life preservation skills. The punch to the face wasn’t a surprise and based on his last encounter with a fae, the power behind it wasn’t either. Once the fear of the little stars floating above his head taking over his mind had faded, Stiles chanced a look at the pixie.

“My bad, I meant to say even Captain Hook wasn’t desperate enough to want a Tinkerbell reject like yourself.” He sneered spitting blood onto her already torn outfit.

Stiles heard the distant buzzing and hum of what sounded like a hundreds little wasp and flies before he felt the stabbing pain.

The knowledge that burning flesh smelled like bacon was something he thinks he could have lived the rest of his life without ever knowing.

* * *

“-ing, ‘you reap what you sow’. Really I should put a spell on you to make sure you can’t talk at all. Imagine that little mouth of yours sealed away. Maybe I’ll sew it up for you? Or should I give you the same fate as Maria in the Pit and the Pendulum? I could use the tongue of a virgin.” she threatened in a sadistically fond way.

If Stiles was feeling charitable and not waking up from a pain induced blackout while being dragged against stone cold floor, he would have given her 7 out of 10 on her villainous threat skills. Peter was better though, much more creative. Hell Lydia could smile while telling you in the most graphic detail exactly how she would take pleasure in cutting out your bowels and frying them the stove before feeding it to you better than this. Eye of newt went out of style the second time he met a witch. He needed to get a better life if he could actually rate warnings for future bodily harm rather than actually listen to them.

“Does that mean you’re Torquemada and my beauty is leading you into temptation?  Because if so, really I’m sorry you can’t handle all this jelly-” he quipped out as her nails dug into his neck cutting off his air.

They suddenly stopped moving before Stiles was jerked up and brought close. She would've been considered as pretty if it weren't for her, well you know, the ragged outfit and evil cannibal aura she carried around. She had big round aquamarine eyes that glittered even in the low torch light that lined the walls. Her hair was that blue black that only anime or a dye bottle could ever really make work well and she had lips that were plump yet thin. She was everything a model could only wish to be at 5am in the morning without makeup. She was pretty. She was beautiful, even with her shark like teeth that gave him the chills as she smiled at him.

“Unlike like my darling but stupid sister I actually do have a poetic sense to my life.” She purred.

“So the depravity is actually genetic. It’s everything else that makes you ‘unique’?” Stiles countered.

She shook her head at him never letting her smile slip. “Lamia was a fool who thought that time had stopped having meaning after the Greeks, which really was what killed her. She couldn't, how do you humans like to say, ‘get with the times?'”

“G-g-god she was that much an old hag? I take it back. You look wonderful for a grandmother Tinkerbell.” He stammered out with a false laugh trying to get something other than her really disturbing grin to slip onto her face. Her ability to maintain a smile through his admittedly lack luster snark is something to be awed and feared. Someone that grins through insults only grins because they have something worst in store for you.

“Do you know what my name was? I was called Titania long before I changed my name a few years after. Do you know what I was called, hmm?”

“Demona? Raven? Bitch?”

“Maleficent. Someone has to inspire you humans every few decades. Thanks to you, I’ll be able to live up to the name.”

“I’m not sure you can convince me to ask you why.” Stiles countered as he struggled to get out of her too tight grip, which only made her grin into a full on smile.

She kept her stare on Stiles as she waved her unoccupied hand around in an infinity twirl that forced a wooden dungeon door to swing open. Magic. Great. Stiles did not like where this was going at all. He had played enough World of Warcraft, enough Dungeons and Dragons, hell he had lived enough and been kidnapped enough to know that this was not the door he wanted to go into. This is not the door you are looking for.

"You could say I was inspired by fairy tales," she taunted as she yanked him closer and closer to the door before literally throwing him inside so hard he slid the last couple of feet until the wall stopped him.

The slamming of the door closing felt too ominous without the added fact of her grinning at him through the bars. "Remind me again, what happens to little red? Oh, that's right. She gets eaten. By. The. Big. Bad. Wolf."

Stiles didn't even have the chance to point out that the wolf gets cut open via the Huntsman's blade before he heard the growling start up right next to him. He startles and tries crawling as far away as he can get from the feral sounding growls. He doesn't get away far enough before his back is already against another wall and one pair of bright blue and another pair of sunset amber glowing eyes open up to stare at him. He tries to swallow the first whimpers of fear crawling its way up his throat with sticky hands. This is bad. This is really bad. But it could always be-

"A little red for a big bad red!" She laughs out over the growing growls.

-worse. Stiles can hear his heartbeat as if it’s right there, pumping right next to his ears. He can feel it punching away at the boxing balloon of his calm. He can only imagine how loud the terror must sound to the wolves. He doesn't think the stench of fear smells too pleasant either. In the shadow of the bleak light, he can see another shape moving to stand up behind the two betas. He can't care too much about the fact that Maleficent is still cackling as she walks away like a villain well pleased. He moves slowly to the left trying to inch away from the coming danger. This is not going to end nicely.

"Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?" a girl like voice sings in the room much closer than he had previously thought.

Stiles swallows deep pushing against the wall as if he was Kitty Pryde and actually could phase through walls. "He’s a great big sis-"

A rush of blue blurs across his vision yanking him up and slamming him up against the wall before he can even think about escaping.  Did he have a sign across his body that said ' if found slam into things?' or something close to that? He didn't deserve to be manhandled this much. Callused tipped fingers grabbed hold of his chin tilting his head away from eyes of blue to a wicked grin and blazing pools of red.

The grinning alpha licked his lips, and honestly, Stiles isn't sure if he should still be afraid or turned on because god that looked sinful. He does not get any help from the guy either when his nostrils flair and his grin grows even more promising. He leans in closer towards Stiles' left ear and for a few seconds he honestly thinks he may be more at risk of dying from fear then mortification at mistimed lust. Fuck. Death isn't supposed to look hot.

‘Please don't sound sexy. Please don't sound sexy.' he pleads to Fate to listen for once.

"Certainly not I?"

Fate is a _bitch_.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was made prior to Season 3 coming out. So that along with my 'i don't give a damn' attitude is why Erica and Boyd live. And also why Jackson is still there. Kira will be here because I love her and I don't give a damn, I do what I want. 
> 
> Yes I used a song lyric as the title for this fic, there will be song and poems or even book quotes for the chapter titles too.
> 
>  **Edit:1/28/14** So this fic was originally called Undisclosed Desires but then I actually took a moment to think about it and realized it didn't fit the work fully. So I changed it to the title you see here. 
> 
> But I totally hope you enjoy this.


	3. Go Back to Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is such a thing as too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, beta'd by the wonderful **[Momo](http://archiveofourown.org/users/momorune/) **.

_"…Go back to sleep_  
_Go back to sleep_  
_Counting bodies like sheep_  
_To the rhythm of the war_ _drums…"_  
_(Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of The War Drums-A perfect Circle)_  
.....................................................................

"So how do we want this to go, the kinky or the scary way?" Stiles offered up in all honesty because really there were only a few options for this. Either porn or horror. (Wait, wasn't there gore porn out there in the world?) The snarl and slam into the wall – as if the point that he could be hurt at any time hadn't been made before – was as good an answer as any. "Scary it is then." he nodded to himself.

"Now, now I never said anything at all little red." the alpha smirked.

His body leaned next to Stiles' suspended body in the most nonchalant shrug possible in their admittedly small prison room. Really it was just unfair in every single way possible for him to keep talking. The alpha had an accent, somewhere between Russian or English but absolutely weak-knee inducing. It was like hearing sex. He was shirtless with wounds that made Stiles not the least bit interested in knowing how they came to be. The fact that they were still leaking didn't make him too queasy. The alpha was lean the way swimmers were; strong muscles brushed smooth by the waves and chiseled compact by the cold. Stiles wondered if he tasted as good as he looked; like black coffee with a shot of whiskey, burning all the way down but worth it. He was at least three inches taller than Stiles and he never really had a height kink but he's starting to rethink it. Stiles doesn't want to even examine his tattoos because he's pretty sure if he gives into the urge to touch the looping, straight, colorful and plain, permanent ink on the guy's body he's going to lose a limb. Especially the important ones.

"Pretty sure actions speak louder than words, Balto." He chose to ignore the claws that dug into his arms. Scars impressed the ladies as much as the men, right?

"My, what a large mouth you have." The alpha grinned with a look that could only be called predatory.

"All the better to – you know what? Fuck you. I didn't just get the shit beat out of me by a freaking tooth fairy to get sexually harassed by some alpha who is overcompensating for his small dick." He shouted.

"Then how do you feel about being killed by his betas?" A softer male voice suggested from the shadows.

Stiles had forgotten about the second beta completely as he was preoccupied by the one holding him. Now that he actually turned his head away from the alpha, he could actually acknowledge that he was being beat up by a chick. Again. Now don't get him wrong, he was all for women equality and power. He just didn't get why he had to be the punching bag on their climb to total domination.

"Idiots should die, lest they repopulate the world with their kind," The woman warned with what sounded like an actual smile.

Stiles squinted a bit to get a better look at her in the low light to see if she really was smiling, which with his track record of crazies he would bet his baseball bat that she was. She was. She had what looked like a broken nose, crooked and releasing a fountain of crimson to drape her face in war paint. She was appealing with pale porcelain skin that even though marred with bruises and cuts that were still bleeding still looked great. Lydia could take a few pointers.

"It would be a shame if we let one idiot go when we had the chance to stop the disease, wouldn't it Lupe?"

"How about no? Bad girl, bad." Stiles objected shaking his finger at her. No self-preservation. None.

The male beta, Lupe, blinked slack-jawed with nothing but confused disbelief a few times before visibly shaking his head. It was a common expression Stiles induced in new people, the fact that even in his time of extreme terror he was able to still bring about something so normal actually calmed him a bit. Enough to relax, no. Enough for his previously forgotten boner to die, yes.

"In case you forgot, I already have you in my hands," she threatened lifting him up even higher which was a bit amazing all things considered. "I bet you scream like a slaughter pig when you get sliced."

"Going to cut me in half the way hunters cut your kind? Huh, Toto?" Stiles spat at her face, satisfied when he saw that there was some blood mixed in.

"Oh this is going to be so painful for you. But don't worry; it'll be fun for me." Lupe assured.

Stiles would like to say he faced it like a man, face forward without blinking in the presence of death but let's be honest. He cringed in terror prepared to die. Which, yeah, more death scares. He was only 18 with more near death experience than some combat veterans. What was one more? So he waited, with both bathed breath and weary acceptance for the first blow. What he got instead wasn't a hit, a kick, or even claw infused slap. He got dropped to the hard floor, which thank god he already knew how to deal with both a bruised and broken tailbone because god did it hurt. He rolled his body into a tight ball to protect his stomach and neck before taking a peek to the side to see why he wasn't being attacked.

Color him surprised to see what was happening. The alpha stood half in front of him with one hand around the girl's neck, claws making light indents into her skin but not drawing blood while his other hand splayed out claws first, dug faintly into the boy's stomach. The boy had his head down, shaking as he looked down at the claws that dug into his already wounded skin, suspended in mid step. Stiles is really glad he didn't have to go through that. One claw to the body was bad enough, twice would have been a bit much. The girl was a complete contrast to the boy, where he was shaking in fear and submissive she was frozen in anger and defiance. Her lips were lifted up and pulled away from her gums showing very tame human teeth but the message was clear, she wasn't bowing to her alpha so quick.

"Stand down Meghan." The alpha commanded not even raising his voice, and though she still looked at him with defiance her body did relax. It wasn't the time or place but Stiles considered asking the guy for his number if he survived this, not for himself (shut up brain) but for his alphas. Scott and Derek, maybe a bit more Derek, could take some pointers in how to deal with their pack.

"Why Aleksandr? Why shouldn't I kill a human who is begging to die?" Meghan questioned tapping against his hand still holding her which he ignored in favor of removing his hand from Lupe's chest. Stiles took offense in that description but at the same time he couldn't even argue about it. Seeing that the alpha, Aleksandr, had a nice hold on his violently inclined pack Stiles got out of his protective ball and just sat there against the wall trying to catch his breath.

"Other than the fact that the fairy apparently kidnapped him too-," he started to explain.

"He could be a trap for us, you can't trust a-," she interrupted snarling in Stiles' direction.

"Don't make me hurt you Meghan. Stop being stupid for a second and listen to me!" He shouted finally at some limit and really Stiles wasn't a werewolf and even he cringed back in fear of the power behind the shout. Lupe whined shuffling his feet around like a kid stuck somewhere he really didn't want to be while she tilted her head down looking away to the side. "Now if you would just calm down for a moment and use all your senses you'll get what I'm saying. Take a whiff. Take a good whiff around and tell me what you smell."

Both betas tilted their head back and inhaled deeply before exhaling just as strongly. They did it for a few minutes leaving Stiles alone to consider a few things. Now that he actually thought about it critically the two people in his cell when he awoke were either members of the same pack or some not so randomly kidnapped people. The real question though was why they were they kidnapped? He could assume he was taken as revenge for assisting in the death of Maleficent's sister. Which he doesn't regret the least; the bitch should have been killed earlier. But that didn't explain why there were to his knowledge five other people. Stiles was thinking how best to interrupt their deep meaningful discussion with the air when he noticed an itch on the side of his head, as if someone was staring at him.

"You've got to be kidding me." Meghan whined, rolling her eyes in the way that Stiles had come to think was a particular Hale only trait. "You can't even try to tell me this-" she shook her hands in his general direction.

"You know he's not deaf right Meg?" Aleksandr advised arching a brow up in question. Stiles frowned because that wasn't right. There should be laws out there in the world to stop people who already looked too attractive from making too many facial expressions. He was staring at exhibit three right now and it was mentally hurting all his self-control.

"But –, he's –, it's so faint! How could we know?" Lupe complained with something too close to Scott's adorable confused face that he rocked back in freshman year. Scott had grown up so much in the years since he had gotten the bite that Stiles was tempted to make an altar begging to see that face once more. He ignored the fact that he was getting what he asked for.

"You know I'm still in the room?" He mentioned in case they had forgotten.

"Where's your pack?" Lupe asked skirting around Meghan to stand a little bit closer to Stiles.

He stood up quickly enough that the boy flinched back in surprise before realizing what he was doing and stopping. Stiles stared at them in consideration for a second weighing the pros and cons of saying anything. On one hand they were asking about his pack and if there was one thing that had been drilled into them, regardless of being werewolf or human, was to never sell out the pack; to never give enemies or those who were unknown too much information about their home. On the other hand, the fact that he had a pack had probably been the only thing that saved him from being decoration for the floor. He had to survive this, but he couldn't hurt his pack in his selfishness to live either.

"I've got a better question, how strong is the scent?" He countered.

"One more wash and it'll be gone, you're lucky you didn't wash it off completely." Meghan scoffed.

"It sounds more like I'm lucky your alpha is better than you."

"How about we try not start a new fight?" Aleksandr commanded before leading by example and sitting down across from where Stiles stood. Lupe followed suit shortly leaving Meghan and Stiles to start a stare off full of contempt and displeasure. "The longer you both stand up the more energy you'll waste."

"I'm sure I can out last a human, even if he has a pack." Meghan challenged.

Aleksandr tsked to himself shaking his head in what could only be considered disappointment. "That wasn't a suggestion or request, Meg."

Meghan swirled her head around to stare at him in annoyance only to be answered in turn by a bored expression. She turned around punching the wall twice before she sat down facing away from all of them. Stiles thought he was being a very mature near adult by not sticking his tongue out at her in victory. Score 1 for the human and 0 for the wolf. He flicked imaginary dirt, current situation ignored, off his shoulders.

"Unless you think you can take more hits to the head without getting a concussion, I would be sitting down before I have a party in my head." Aleksandr suggested in a mild manner.

Stiles frowned not understanding why he was in danger of getting hurt now. "Why would I be in danger of getting hit on the head? I thought we were cool."

"Let's just say that all the king's horses won't be able to put your head back together again. Which would be such a shame, so much potential would be lost."

Meghan snorted in her corner.

"I don't get it, use your words! My god what is with you alphas and not being able to use your words? Do you guys need to go to How to Speak to People 101 or something? I can't get into your head."

"You could try-" and if Stiles didn't know better he would think the guy was trying to flirt with him which 1) so not the time to try to get your groove on and 2) he didn't have a good reason after that.

"Oh my god! No! Not him!" Meghan yelled turning her head around.

"If you don't sit down you're going to hit your head when you pass out, dude." Lupe interjected.

"Why would I-" Stiles tried asking only to stop when he started to hear a faint hiss in the room. He turned around to see what looked like a rolling lilac fog curl under the door and crawl its way into the room. He tried backing away from the cloud not realizing it was seeping through the cracks in the stone as well until the whole floor was covered in the gas that tumbled and glowed like a firefly in the dark. He saw the wolves looking at him each with various expressions on their face; annoyance, direction, and care before the fog shot up into the air towards the ceiling and then fell over their heads.

He took a breath in and held it.

_1...2….3...4...5_

_He could do this. He wasn't going to pass out._

_20...21...22...23...24...25_

_He swam two hours in a pool against a kanima._

_45...46...47...48...49...50_

_He swam to the bottom of a lake and punched a kelpie in the eye._

His knees slammed down to the floor.

_He blew iron shavings into the eyes of a fae who tried to fly him to the moon._

_115...116...117...118...119...120_

_He could do this._

_132….133….._

_He could-_

He clawed at his shoulders and neck dragging slowly and drawing blood.

_…...1…..3….4_

_this._

* * *

"You should have let him suffer." Meghan sullenly stated in what sounded like she already knew the choir had left the pews before the sermon was done.

"I thought you were an unpleasant nightmare." Stiles moaned dejectedly trying to make either the pain or the nausea go away. He wasn't sure if he was more likely to puke or cry and he very much didn't want to do either, especially with people who he had just met. Stopping the pain won out the battle. He moved his hand to try to see which hurt could be calmed enough to make it through a few more hours only to tense when Lupe dropped down next to him grabbing his arm into his hands.

"What are you doing?" His whole body sagged in uncontrollable relief as he visibly saw his pain seep away from his body and into Lupe's arms. "Let me change that, why are you doing it?" God he had nearly forgotten about the better than morphine effects of pain draining. He always thought that if hunters actually knew all they claimed they knew about werewolves they may have tried less killing and more capturing. It was like a drug, the kind that you tried saying you didn't want but you know if given the chance you would keep taking until you died in a zoned out stupor.

"You're going to want some energy to move when she comes back." Lupe insisted keeping his eyes trained to his arms.

"And to think you started off wanting to kill me, I'm glad our love will survive the night." Stiles quipped.

"If I don't do it, he'll try to do it and personally I don't want my alpha weak because he's helping someone who isn't pack." He stated matter of fact.

Stiles nodded his head in understanding; it was bad enough that their alpha had scolded them already for trying to hurt him. He looked around the room, not to find anyone in particular, wondering what was going to happen next. Aleksandr was standing up closer to the door looking out through the bars towards the top at an angle, peeping left and right while his fingers clenched and splayed out rhythmically. He stood on the balls of his feet which for the first time since getting here, (wow he really was letting a pretty face distract him) he realized were shoeless. Looking across the cell he noticed Meghan or Lupe were also barefoot. It was weird when he knew he still had his and now he needed to stop the happy feels.

"Hey, Lassie, you should stop with the pain mojo right about now."

Lupe gave Stiles a peeved look with a slight flash of glowing eyes. "I'm taking away your pain and you're still going to insult me? Really?"

Stiles shrugged languidly. "I have a best friend I've known for too long, his mother reluctantly unofficially adopted me as her own, and I still make dog jokes about him. Be glad you're not a werecat."

Lupe shook his head warily with what seemed like a 'just let it go' mindset for all his future dealings with Stiles. "I can still take a bit more pain."

"And I'm telling you that if you want me to be anything other than a pile on the floor or high acting you need to stop. Trust me. I've had enough experience with this all, stop." He assured.

Lupe reluctantly removed his hands away from his body but he didn't' move away again. He leaned back against the wall wrapping his arms, that still pulsed with dark lines of pain moving up, around his pulled up legs. Stiles absently looked around the room not really paying any attention to a thing. He needed to start figuring out a plan soon, he didn't want to stay here or die. Meghan moved around slowly, pacing back and forth in a predator trapped in a cage like style, sometimes she even growled low in her throat after she made a few turns only for Aleksandr to turn to her and flash his eyes to get her to calm down.

After a while Stiles fell asleep. Which on one hand he felt chagrined for doing. Melissa had told him enough times to resist sleeping too quickly after hitting his head, but on the other hand he needed it.

Waking up to find that Meghan was at the door switching her eyes between the halls and his direction periodically was confusing until he realized the position he was in. He had his head leaning against something that smelled kind of nice and something heavy was on his lap. He looked down to see Lupe with his head turned towards his stomach curled around as if he was used to someone else he cuddled with, which meant that the shoulder he was very happily leaning his head on was Aleksandr's. He tried to move his head up quickly enough to get away from the alpha without waking the beta up.

"How long have we been sleeping?" Aleksandr asked scaring the crap out of Stiles and just destroying his plan to not move too much. You would think that with his years of dealing with people who didn't think it was necessary to make noises that he would have finally gotten used to it. He hasn't.

"I can't tell time here," Meghan began.

"God it's bad enough that my body hurts, I don't need your attitude on top of all of it too." Lupe muttered.

"I was going to say about two hours. No activity around us. But, I heard yelling and it sounded like them." She revealed.

"We need to get the hell out of here." Aleksandr stated rising up but not trying to move away from Stiles.

"Not to be an asshole or anything but why can't you?" Stiles pondered out loud.

"Not only is the room lined with ash but the door is made out of mountain ash for starters." The alpha tried to explain.

"And she's injected us with some form of wolfsbane." Meghan added.

"That explains why you aren't healing. You have strength but you can't do anything with it. You can take pain but you can't heal and she keeps cutting you up. I don't have anything to pick any locks. And there may be more than just her here. So to be polite, we are screwed." Stiles summarized nodding.

As if his words had called her there, suddenly the door swung open for Maleficent to walk through . The wolves were growling in slight crouches standing ready for a fight they were going to lose if the two extra fae behind her were any inclination. She barely paid the betas any attention letting her eyes linger on Aleksandr for a long moment. The longer they stared at one another the angrier the alpha's face became, slowly morphing into the full shift. She tilted her head to the side in a bird like manner and for a moment Stiles seriously thought she was going to keep going into Exorcist levels of freaky. Which no. No. There wasn't a real check-out line for the road of life but he would die trying to find it if things got that far.

"Pity you didn't kill him, I'm not sure I'm going to feed you anything else during your stay here." She said turning away to look over Stiles frowning the more she looked at him.

"I convinced them that 145 pounds of pale skin and fragile bones wouldn't make as good a meal as a fairy reject." Stiles snapped. He heard Aleksandr and Lupe snort in amusement while her eye twitched in annoyance before a smile started to emerge on her face.

"You know, your other beats make such beautiful sounds when they scream, I bet these two would make even better sounds while they cry." she laughed flashing a sanguine grin.

"I wonder how loud you'll cry!" Aleksandr roared running towards her as if he would tackle her before suddenly pulling up in an uppercut and a slam into what would be her kidneys if she were human.

Meghan snarled as she and Lupe tried to follow their alpha's lead in the assault only to whimper when the two henchmen pulled out whips that hissed and burned, cracking them onto flesh. Aleksandr was trying to weave in and out of Maleficent's reaching hands to deliver some sort of blow that would get them out. Stiles tried getting up to join the fight for freedom only to double over in pain when she was suddenly there punching him before pulling her arm up to slam her elbow down. He fell to his knees, holding his body up with shaking hands only to get kneed in the face. Falling to the side he looked on as Aleksandr tried to fight against something that seemed to have him pinned against the wall while his betas withered on the floor in agony against the electric shock of the whips.

"You know I heard from some nice hunters once that wolves can't heal if you set the current high enough," Maleficent considered as she walked forward to lean over Meghan who alternated between sneers and cries. "Tell me, do you think hell burns as hot?" she purred.

Meghan's back suddenly bowed out pulling a gasp as her mouth gaped wide with fangs that glistened red from her own blood. Her lips were cut ragged. She surged up to Maleficent's ear, biting down and pulling, in an enraged shout of triumph. Stiles let himself smirk as the Tinkerbell reject screamed jumping around pressing her hand to her ear. If he had any energy he would have crawled over toward Meghan and kissed her on the cheek, he was starting to warm up to her.

"You know, you sure make wonderful sounds when you scream, I bet I could get used to it." Aleksandr replied throwing a bit of her own words back.

"Shut up!" If Stiles ever wondered what fairies looked like when they were really angry, he was getting the answer right now. Her skin was actually turning purple while her eyes glowed dark. She reached a hand out into the air before both whips flew into her waiting hands. She twirled them expertly snapping both to twist around the alpha's throat and waist.

Stiles tried blocking out the screams but he couldn't block out the way Aleksandr's body protested the suffering it was going through. The way his arms bulged with power that couldn't touch, the way his eyes glowed brighter than the moon, the way his canines tried to bite at the air instead of his tongue, or the way he didn't let his face show anything but his anger at not being able to kill in vengeance.

"I'm going to enjoy shattering you, little king, and I know some of the best ways." She promised making sure to yank on the whips a few times before pulling them away and throwing them to the waiting faes. "But first," she placed her boot onto Meghan's chest and pressed down until the wolf was gasping in shallow breaths, "I'm going to break your darling beta until you beg me to die. And then, I'll make sure you live even longer to suffer through it all over again. Leave the others and bring her." She commanded, walking through the doors before pausing on the threshold. "Stiles, don't think I forgot about you. We'll have even more fun later." She promised.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm thinking I'm going to update either once every week or every other week at worst. But I hope ya'll are liking this.


	4. I’d rather rescue myself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always beta'd by the lovely Momo. *You all should see the playlist I have for this fic. Each chapter gets it's own song. Some may get two*

_"…I don’t wanna be like_ _Cinderella,_  
_Sitting in a dark, cold, dusty cellar,_  
_Waiting for somebody to come and set me free…"_  
_(Cinderella-The Cheetah Girls)  
......................................................................._

Silence sat heavily on already weary shoulders while the darkness of the situation ate away at their minds. No one talked and they barely let a breath leave their bodies deeper than a whisper. They were like rats trapped in a cage while the cat dealt with them as it would please. Stiles was splayed out on the floor trying to breathe, he didn't have the energy or the inclination to speak or move. He was dimly aware that the other two were close by, as he was, glued to the floor in their despondent thoughts. He tried not to think too much about what just happened. He tried very hard to make his mind go to a better place compared to the sick infested way whispers of inadequacy tried to take hold but in this moment, all he had was his mind to speak to him.  Here he was again, captured, beaten, and in need of rescuing. Though Stiles was very much inclined to be his own prince charming, the fact remained that he was still the damn damsel in distress. The more he allowed his mind to wonder, the more he questioned the benefit of this "vacation.” Sure, he had learned more than Deaton seemed at all capable of teaching him, sure his self-esteem got a hell of a boost, and yeah he finally understood he wasn't the weakest link in the pack, but that still didn't change the fact he was trapped here.

Stiles turned his head slowly until he could really look at the werewolves. He could only imagine the way their minds were working right now, if he, the as-close-to-human-as-you-could-get, was beating himself up over this then how were they doing? How was Lupe, who seemed just like the type of guy who joined you in a bar fight (Stiles really wanted to have at least one of those in his life before he hit 25) just because you were his pal, feeling knowing that he couldn't do more than wither in pain? He didn't even bother wonder too much about Alek. He knew the way Derek had taken each loss in a decisive fight. The alpha was most likely thinking up the best way for revenge while also considering himself weak. Stiles wished he could tell the guy he did alright, hell he did damn good in the face of the bullshit hand they were dealt.

“What type of name is Stiles?” Lupe grunted out moving around on the floor a bit until he could gaze at Stiles on his side.

He looked like shit, though Stiles felt as if his whole body looked as bad if not worst if the pain he was feeling was any measure. Looking a bit harder at Lupe, he realized that the boy was young; he couldn't be any older than sixteen at most. The kid was barely in high school and he was already getting kidnapped and beat up. That didn’t even account for being a supernatural creature. Life seemed to have a goal in mind it seemed, always and forever mess with people when they were of the worst age possible. He wondered if the kid had always been a wolf or if he was like Scott, thrust into a completely new world without a magic carpet ride.

“Didn't your mother teach you it’s not polite to question people about personal matters?” Stiles asked. One day he was going to find someone who didn’t ask him about his choice of names and it was going to be a wonderful and perfect legally blonde day.

“Actually,” Lupe drawled, flicking his gaze somewhere above Stiles’ shoulder “my mother taught me to know as much about a person as you could and then to judge them as harshly and hypocritically as you possibly could. So technically I’m living up to her standards.”

Stiles swallowed past a sudden feeling of regret in his choice of words. He wished for a second that Scott were there to apologize in that puppy dog way which got him out of nearly any faux pas in life. He normally never mentioned anything about his real name to people, hell it had taken Scott 6 years to finally get to even see his birth certificate and it was Scott for crying out loud. Lupe wasn’t Scott but he brought a similar sense of care and smile to Stiles' mind.

"Your mother sounds like a bitch in the best way I can say that without being too offensive." Stiles acknowledged bleakly.

"No, she is a bitch. You’re free to call her as such or hell, call her Vernon Dursley," Lupe assured him with a strong tone of distaste. "If I was inclined to I would have sent her a thank you card for throwing my sister and me out of her _pleasant_ house. Best thing she ever did for us. Anyway, you still haven't said your name."

Stiles wisely didn't even try to comment on the information he was just given about what seemed to be a life prior to the pack. He couldn't really relate to hating a parent at all. He lost his mother too young to even get to an age where he could whine about the unfairness of life. He had lost her too young to even contemplate if he was adopted when his teenage years would make him feel isolated. He had lost Claudia too young and what felt too quickly. All he had left was his father and the man tried so hard to be all that he could be for his son even when he himself sometimes needed someone to lean on. Stiles couldn't understand through his life, but through Scott’s he had learned disappointment, he had learned sadness, and he had learned hate. He could understand how sometimes the family you're given at birth isn't always the family you need, how sometimes the best option really is anything but that.

"I haven't told you my name because I don't like having to explain too much about it. Plus my name is crazy hard to pronounce so there is that." He offered up with a slight shrug hoping maybe that would be enough for Lupe. The raised eyebrow in response was enough to inform him that this wasn't a closed topic.

"Alek has a crazy hard to pronounce middle name and I've at least heard it once. I also have a twin who can spell said name, perfectly. That’s not going to work for you. How about you spell it and Alek pronounces it?" He urged with too much hope on his face for Stiles to do more than squint in frustration.

"You didn't even get Alek's permissi-"

"I'll do it." Alek agreed lifting his body up and leaning heavily against the wall.

"I'm only going to spell it out once, after that you're on your own." Stiles warned before taking a deep breath. "S. V. Y. A. T. O. S. L. A. V."

“Are you sure the Y shouldn't be a J instead? Actually is it supposed to be Russian or Croatian?" Alek questioned first.

"Most people don't realize there's another way to spell it depending on the dialect." Stiles said with full disbelief that for the first time ever someone actually knew his name. "It's Russian though. My mother's family came from Russia long before they lived in Poland."

Alek nodded his head in understanding. "Your name is pronounced like this, 'svyah-tah-SLAHF' in either versions." he said with a smile on his face that became a full fledge smirk when Stiles' mouth opened in full fledge surprise. Some part of him tried to blossom with some lust at that smirk but Stiles pushed it down as far as he could make it go; prison was so not the place to try and get his ‘groove’ on.

"Oh my god you weren't kidding. Keep your nickname dude. God what were your parents even thinking?" Lupe bemoaned as if he was the one who had to write his name out on applications and hope that the reader saw the preferred name instead of butchering his given one.

"His parents probably were giving him a nice family name?" Alek offered with a deadpan raise of his eyebrows. "Maybe just like my parents did to me?"

"But you were like born and raised in Russia that makes sense since you were like in the zone of normal names. No offense Stiles but I don't think I'm ever going to call you by your birth name." Lupe argued shaking his head to himself.

Stiles gave Alek a wry smile, more twist of the lips then full smile (he hurt too much to grin fully). "Your mother and father called you Lupe and irony of irony you are a werewolf. You don't get to judge my name."

Lupe narrowed his eyes back at him before turning to Alek with a mischievous smile. "Care to know what Alek's middle name is?"  He tried to bargain.

"I didn't know you had any rights in divulging my secrets."

"It’s not a secret if our whole pack knows already."

"It's my name for starters and I get to control who knows it."

"But it's only-" Lupe started to whine a bit only to snap his mouth close when Alek turned red tinted eyes on him.

They fell into silence again each in their own mind again. Stiles tried to stare at the ceiling but gazing at the bricks and mortar didn't uplift him a bit and he couldn't turn around too much to gaze at the door to their cell. He let his eyes roam off to the side to trace the mountain ash lines that outlined the walls thickly. He was thinking about his studies and wondered if he could possibly use the ash to make a protective circle when he was brought out of his thoughts again.

"My middle name means to rule all." Alek said to the room at large but Stiles understood that it really was just for him.

"If I'm right about mine then it means bright glory." Stiles replied.

Alek raised his shoulders in what seemed the best he could shrug considering the pain he was in from his injuries.  "My middle name is Vsevolod so I do fully understand trying to get someone who doesn’t know the language to pronounce it being a lost cause mainly. I'm just lucky my first name is a 'normal' name.”

Lupe raised his arms in the air but since he was still lying on the ground, it more resembled Frankenstein's monster rising from the table than anything else. "I have a question if I'm allowed to ask it."

"Don't act like a brat, just try to retain some level of maturity." Alek sighed resting his head back against the wall.

Lupe nodded in understanding before rolling over to his side. That, in any other setting, would have prompted Stiles to mutter the words all people feel compelled to utter since the Titanic made millions too emotional for words. He wasn't done though, he moved around in little short aborted movements hinting at hidden pain until he was also leaning against the wall close by his alpha. Stiles felt as if there was a slight power play unconsciously employed or perhaps there was only a need to be closer to pack instead.

"You said your pack isn't here and we haven't heard any other wolves come in. We know why we're here, but why are you?" Lupe finally asked when he seemed to be as comfortable as one could get with raw wounds.

Stiles squinted at him in suspicion, "Why are you here?"

"Other than fairies sucking?" Lupe offered up.

Stiles snorted to himself, he already knew that prior to this unfortunate experience. "I'll share mine if you share yours."

Alek barked out a laugh that promptly turned into a muttered hiss of regret and shaky breaths. "If that isn't the best line for a gay porn I'm not sure what is." he shook his head.

Lupe seemed to have been biting back a few snorts himself if the bitten lips were any indication. "We're a nomadic pack.  Our pack has at least eight members we've got to..."

"We need to survive. Everyone isn't exactly of working age yet and most jobs are picky about giving jobs to people with a tendency of moving around. We do jobs. Various."

"What we have are a very particular set of skills; skills we have acquired over a very long...career." Lupe tapered off from quoting the best line from Taken with just a look of displeasure from his alpha. Stiles had to give it to the guy, he ruled with ease and he did it well. Maybe Lydia shouldn't meet him. God forbid she learns better skills on her path to world domination.

"You were a pack of mercenaries? _Werewolf_ mercenaries? What, did you make hits on hunters?" Stiles questioned.

"Not the whole pack; everyone doesn't need to get their hands dirty. We only killed two hunters and really it was the least we could have done. We work in the 'underground' world of supernatural association-"

"Stop," Stiles couldn't believe he was hearing this. Derek, Deaton, or even Peter never told the pack there was an association of supernatural things. They never were let into the fact. He tried opening his mouth a few times in amazement and curiosity. It was enough of a shock to prompt him into a sitting position though he made no move to get closer to the wall so that he could lean against it. "Stop, are you telling me there's a black market for the supernatural world?" he demanded.

"You realize if there wasn't a market, the government would have started looking into hunters with the amount of weapons they have? That's even with the fact that a couple run "security" jobs." Lupe pointed out.

"A supernatural black market?" He repeated in case Alek wasn't getting the point that an answer was needed.

"There is a " _market_ " of sorts that allows you to make connections and buy materials when in need" Aleksandr explained. "There were various jobs for us. We picked or dropped off things, escorted or protected, and served out some justice."

"That doesn't explain what pissed off Tinkerbell-reject enough to kidnap you."

"Does not doing a job and exposing her to nearby hunters explain enough for you? Or do I need to go into details? How about this? She wanted us to transport kidnapped children to a secure location for her." Alek snapped letting red swirl its way into his eyes.

"Don’t forget the part where she wanted us to kidnap a pregnant woman so that she could pull the beating heart out and use the baby as a sacrifice." Lupe insisted.

Stiles cringed, both chastised for being as demanding as he was and for the easy way he could imagine, hell, remember, the depravity. Fucking fairies. "If she was anything like her sister than I'm surprised you didn't kill her." He tried in a mild voice hoping they both picked up on his unspoken apology.

Lupe cocked his head to the side as if he had just heard something he wasn't a hundred percent sure how to handle yet. "Wait a second, how do you even-"

"You killed her sister." Alek stated without even a hint of a question.

Stiles felt his face turn bleak in memory. He ran his hands through his hair hoping to shake the horror off. "By the time we found her," he looked down at the ground unable to speak while he looked into their eyes, "by the time we finally got something to go on… she had already taken six kids. All of them were, the lucky ones- none of them were lucky- I-I had..."

"You don't have to-" Lupe suggested in a much softer voice as if he pitied Stiles' past. Stiles didn't raise his head to look at what he could guess were faces of judgment.

"Do you know what they do to the children?" He questioned them in a voice gone soft in memory.

"I…. they kill them?" Lupe assumed.

Stiles laughed without a mask of humor. "Wrong. So wrong. They-"

"You don't have to do this. No one will think less of you if you don't want to go there." Alek finally interjected with a slight amount of urging.

Stiles kept on as if he hadn't been interrupted, "They eat the kids. They eat them! If you were particularly unlucky they ate you while you still cling to life hoping someone came to save you on time. We stopped her. We killed her. I killed her! I killed her and burnt her ashes before I poured half of it in a port-a-potty and the other half I flushed down the toilet of an all you can eat buffet!" he finished in a shout breathing as if he was under attack. No one spoke a single word in the near silence as his lived on in their minds.

"Do you regret it?" Aleksandr asked.

Stile finally raised his head to stare straight into the alpha's eyes. "I regret not getting there quicker. I regret not understanding what was happening earlier. But do I regret killing her? I just wish I had made her suffer." he admitted.

"But why are you here though?" Lupe insisted ignoring the way Alek had slowly turned his head to stare at him fully. "Your pack killed her. Shouldn't they be here with you?” Stiles blinked at the boy in amazement, he actually wasn't going to stop anytime soon with his questions. He noted out loud his observance only to have Alek release a long suffering sigh while Lupe rolled his eyes as if they didn't understand. "I don't like the silence, I can think about dying too easily." Lupe expressed looking at the other two.

Stiles could understand that. He could understand the need to keep talking and thinking until there was nothing else but the noise of life or a particularly hard concept working out in his mind. Sometimes it was better to never have a moment of silence in life. Sometimes it was the silence that itched and clawed away any band-aid he had used over a painful moment. He understood Lupe perfectly. "I came here for vacation-" he started only to have Lupe snort humorlessly, "to understand my power."

"You're a spark? You're staying at the Magic Nest?" Aleksandr guessed.

"How did you-?"

"I've found it a benefit to know my surroundings before blindly moving into an area." he commented as if it was obvious.

"Wait a second, you're a magic person and they sent you out here alone? How bad of an alpha is your alpha?" Lupe argued.

"Lupe!" Aleksandr exclaimed as if even he was shocked.

"It's the truth! Even we send someone with our magic dude if it’s a long distance. The guy looks like a hipster wizard or something and we still give him protection."

"Let's say they had their hands full and it was supposed to be a harmless trip." Stiles hedged not caring to reveal to them the fact that between Lydia's magic and his it had seemed more important and wise for Deaton to train her personally.

"I'm actually curious now," Alek admitted finally taking the questioning away from his beta. "Are you a druid or a spark?"

"Do you even know the difference between the two?"

"I know!" Lupe jumped up in excitement raising his hand quickly into the air before gasping in pain. "Druids get their ability from a connection to the earth. They need rituals and earthly related things, including people, to do anything. Sparks, in contrast, can make things happen as long as it's tied to the earth and they have enough 'belief' in their ability. For about forty years though there was a ruling that all sparks were to be killed on site. Hunters were afraid of the advantage they gave wolf packs.  Witches are a rare group that's tied exclusively to rituals in order to work anything. But it's said they make "deals" with creatures in order to use anything." He boasted.

Stiles only raised his eyebrows in surprise of the sudden history lesson he had just received. Even on his best days he didn't call out this much information about creatures. He looked off to the side of the room not inclined to meet any eyes as he tried to explain what was difficult to explain.

"I'm.- there's something weird about my abilities. I-I can do both options and then some. The witches and druids and sparks at the Magic Nest aren't sure fully what I am." He absent mindedly traced his fingers through the ash around him thinking back to the two head teachers at the house.

~

          _"I don't get it." He whispered confused as he looked back and forth between them._

_"Honestly, we don't fully understand it ourselves. Deaton has left us with little to zero information, not surprising truly. But even we aren't sure what you are child." The Crone of the institution revealed. She had a frown on her face, the same frown she had wore all day leading up to the discussion._

_"We know and we've seen your ability to use mountain ash without any knowledge about the subject but just your belief. You are a spark in this way."  The head male druid conceded._

_"However you also performed a ritual perfectly. We didn't tell you the full end product just in case your thoughts forced the ritual to end the right way but that didn't destroy anything. It still worked perfectly. You hold druid power as well." she claimed._

_"Maybe I'm a hybrid? Maybe someone in my family married one of the two and the result has been dormant?" Stiles tried to rationalize even though he didn't believe it himself._

_The druid frowned in thought for a second before flicking his eyes to meet the Crone. "Is your father into any magic?" he questioned as if he felt he had to._

_"No, and I don't remember my mother doing anything related to magic either." Stiles supplied_

_The Crone sighed reaching up to message her temples in frustration. "It doesn't make sense and we are not prepared for this revelation."_

_"We aren't trained to teach what we ourselves do not understand." The druid added leaning back against the wall beside the window._

_Stiles didn't look at either of them, instead he kept his eyes on the peaceful view the garden presented him with through the window. He thanked the fact he was closer to the door than they were standing behind the office desk. "So you're going to kick me out?" Stiles predicted clenching his jaw. It wasn't fair._

_"No- by Hermes, Heka save me!" The druid exclaimed pushing off the wall and stalking around the desk until he was in front of Stiles. "Did you think we would return to sender? As if you were a broken toy we had found to not be what we assumed?"_

_Stiles briefly glanced at him before turning his gaze back at the garden. He murmured more to himself than directly answering the druid, "You don't even know what to do with me. What are you going to do other than send me back to Deaton?"_

_The Crone scoffed laughing with scorn, "Yes we'll send you back to the very man who sent his charge to us. No Stiles, we don't intend to send you back. We're offering you to stay with us. If all goes well by the end of your stay, we'll extend the invitation for the whole year."_

_Stiles snapped his head around to look at the druid before looking back at the Crone as well. He didn't understand what was going on and made it known he didn't with the way he regarded them. "Why would you do that?"_

_The Crone moved to perch lightly on the desk folding her arms across her chest. “Deaton may be a good druid but that does not mean he is also a good teacher or even leader.  Granted I understand he has plenty on his plate with the necromancer but that he would just push you off onto others speaks ill of him.”_

_“But Lydia needs teaching, she’s-”_

_Her lips thinned in displeasure rolling her eyes. “He could have brought one of the many capable teachers to assist in the teaching. She’s special but not so much in the sense that you assume she is. Banshee necromancers are not uncommon or unheard of.”_

_The druid slashed his hands through the air as if he was cutting away ideas he didn’t care much for. “That’s not even the important part. What’s important is that we are fully willing and happy to teach you.”_

_“You aren’t even sure what I am, how can you teach me anything?” Stiles argued, trying to understand why they were so open to keeping him. Deaton had never been as open or accepting of his presence the way the man enjoyed Scott or even Isaac’s._

_“We can teach you what we know from the areas we are trained in. We’ll teach you the knowledge of sparks and druids. Depending on how we feel, we may even give you the theory of witchery. It’s up to you though, are you willing to give us a chance?”_

~

Stiles brought his mind back from the memories of that meeting that allowed him to stay and learn more in a few weeks than all the “sessions” Deaton had ever cared to give him. Adding to the fact that unlike most of the others times he wasn’t in a life or death or even a pain or no pain situation, he was able to learn quicker and with more confidence in his abilities. “It’s actually funny now that I think about it. The last lesson I had was on healing, who knew I would be in a position where it would be helpful.”

“Are you sure they couldn’t see the future?” Lupe hedged.

Alek suddenly had a wistful expression that he tried to school into a blank look only to move into a hopeless one instead. “If you could only heal supernatural creatures.” he dejectedly mumbled.

Stiles opened his mouth only to snap it close. He swung his head around the cell looking at points here and there while things started to click into place. The wolves didn’t have a shirt on, they had taken away their shoes, he still had his boxer-briefs on, the wolves were still bleeding, the cell was old, and on and on the points emerged into his brain. He could only imagine what he looked like on the outside to the two other occupants in the room as he sat there with eyes fixed upon an unseen chess board. His queen forced pawns away until she stood poised on the edge of the battlefield ready for the upcoming fight. Now how best to move forw-

“Svyatoslav!” There were hands shaking him lightly bringing him to the moment. He turned his head to the side when he at last realized that Aleksandr had been the one shouting his name.

Stiles ignored their close proximity and concentrated on his mind. He tried to control his face but a mild smile found its way onto his face anyway. He wasn’t sure how they would take the news he would tell them but he felt ecstatic, as if a wire had been connected at last to the light bulb in need of a spark. “I’m okay. I’m better than okay.” he informed them hoping to calm their mood a bit.

“Are you sure Svyatoslav? You didn’t hear us calling you for five minutes. You were-”

“You were acting like you were taking a brain nap.” Lupe interjected moving to sit back a bit. Stiles belatedly realized they both were closer to him, as if they were a bit worried about his wellbeing.

He tried to control his grin a bit more. “I was having a brain blast, and it was good.”

“Good enough to make us think you had gotten hit too many ti-”

“Lupe! What did I-”

Stiles took a deep breath in before releasing a calmer sigh, “I know how to get out of here.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! But I promise it shouldn't be this long of a wait for chapter 4. I already have like 500 words and most of it planned out. So maybe two weeks or so? I'm thinking I'll be updating either every two weeks or shorter. Comments always loved!


	5. The Future Is Coming On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goodness I haven't updated in like forever. So sorry. However I do have something that I think will make you happy, hopefully. If you go right [ HERE](http://cutestpixieyoueversaw.tumblr.com/Original%20Characters%201#_=_) you will find the fic's page which has all this new pack's members and pictures! It also has some of their information. I plan to update it as we go along with more information slowly. Some of it will come into play in the fic and some wont. But yes, please take the offering. 
> 
> As always beta'd by the wonderful and perfect (takes time out of her busy life) **[Momo](http://archiveofourown.org/users/momorune/) **.

_"…I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad_  
 _I got sunshine in a bag_  
 _I'm useless but not for long…"_  
 _(Clint Eastwood- Gorillaz)_  
...............................................................

Stiles looked at the two wolves who had stopped moving in shock. Lupe had a slack-jaw while Alek had a big eye look about him. Both were not really the best expressions to what Stiles thought would be a decent pronouncement.

 “I’m sorry what?” Lupe stuttered out blinking away invisible fog.

 “I have a plan to get us out of here.” Stiles insisted hoping they both were using their wolf senses to realize he wasn't joking in the slightest way. “I know how to get us out of here. All I ha-”

 “How are you going to get us out of here?” Alek commanded somehow raising up in the small area until he seemed very much the one in control. It was to quote a famous socialite, hot. Stiles ignored the little part of his brain that pondered how else the man took control; maybe it would extend to others parts of his life?                                

“It was right there!” Stiles exclaimed throwing his arms into the air only to cringe back the way Lupe had earlier. “I know how to heal. I didn't consider everything but I can heal. I can heal you both.”

 “That doesn't sounds at all like a plan though.” Lupe interrupted looking sideways to his alpha in silent question.

 “The plan needs that part to start. I’m going to heal the both of you. I’m going to heal you so that we can get out of here.” Stiles replied looking at Alek more than at Lupe. In this case he had to appeal to the alpha more than to the beta; if he could get the alpha behind this then he could get the rest of them to join him. “I’ll heal you both. And when they bring back Meghan you’ll be able to fight your way out of here and get your other pack members.” Stiles explained gesturing wildly.

 “And what are you going to do while this happens? Just stay here? Go after the witch yourself?” Aleksandr sneered tilting his head to the side in disapproval much the way a snake considered an unpleasant meal.

 “There was more than one plan there,” Stiles tried to make him understand.

 “Then why don't you get to the plan that will be the best way for all of us to get out of here?” Alek asked.

 Stiles looked at him with narrow eyed confusion, the guy barely knew him and he wasn't even a part of his pack but he wanted to take him with them. Even when Stiles gave him an option that would allow him to leave him behind without guilt. He tried not to think about why he had even given him an option, why he had given a guy he barely knew the chance to leave him behind. It wasn’t very smart and he could only imagine the disappointment that Lydia, Allison, or even Jackson would have with his life deal making abilities.

 “You’ll heal Lupe first.”

 “Wait a second why would he heal me? You’re the alpha!” Lupe hissed out as loud as he could considering they didn't want their captors to hear their words.

“The alpha is only as good as his pack.” Alek tried to argue as his beta only started shaking his head in denial harder and harder.

 “The pack is only as good as their alpha!”

 “You’re the strongest, they’ll need you to fight.” Stiles added in.

 “Did you forget Meghan? Did you forget that the fairy witch has her?” Alek quietly roared to the both of them.

 “You want me to heal Lupe so that you can take Meghan’s place?” Stiles questioned unsure if he was understanding this right at all.

 “Essentially yes, I think you’re smart enough to include that into your plan?”

 Stiles raised his eyebrow in his best ‘you've got to be kidding me’ look he could make. He hoped that he was channeling his inner Jackson or Boyd into his look. “I can change it around.”

 Alek favored him with a too knowing smile, “I knew you could.”

“So the plan is I’ll heal Lupe, and then we’ll wait until they bring Meghan back. Once they do I’ll heal her as well.” Here Stiles paused to make his heart beat was as steady as it could be considering the threat around him, “Then we’ll wait until you return before we try getting out of here.”

Alek leaned back against the wall and it was then that Stiles realized just how tense the alpha was. The alpha cared for his pack dearly to the the point that his worry was tied to their well -being above his own. It wasn't something Stiles had never seen before; Scott and Derek each cared for their pack in their own ways. They both fought their hardest to aid any member. Sometimes they even tried hard enough to save Peter too. Alek nodded in approval, “That sounds like a good plan.”

 “Really? Really? How is that a good plan? Am I the only one willing to voice the major question here?” Lupe asked the room at large, not pausing to allow anyone to answer, “How are you going to do anything? The last time I checked we can’t be healed by a druid. And even if we could be, you still need to do a ritual!”

 “You still have your pants on.” Stiles started in what for all intents and purposes sounded as if he was going fully and completely off topic. Based on the blinks that Lupe returned to him and the way Alek just squinted as if maybe he could figure something out if he squeezed his eyes closer together, no one knew where he was going with this. “They took our shirts, even Meghan’s but they left our pants.” The continued looks still weren't shining with sudden understanding. “It means they didn't check underneath our clothes too much. Meaning I might still have a few things still left on my body.”

 “That doesn't explain much though Svyatoslav,” Stiles felt he should mention to the guy that no one in his life other than his mother had used his name as much as he recently had. “You don’t have anything that can get you out of the room, none of us do.”

 “I’m magic and I don’t think she knows that which means…” Stiles trailed off standing up and turning away from the the weres before he slowly started to slip his hand down his pants. It was completely embarrassing and in part one of the reasons why he had placed some of the items in his boxers.

 “What the hell are you doing?!” Lupe moaned in what sounded like real horrible pain. “Oh my god. I’m in a splash fiction!”

 “I think you mean slash fiction.” Alek deadpan.

 Stiles could feel his face heating up as his embarrassment grew and spread down towards his chest. He looked down trying to use the little light they had in the room to find the false side in his clothes. He cursed the fact that he didn’t listen to the Crone when she warned him that placing a button or something similar would have been a much better idea rather than the raised stitch marks he had decided on. It would have made finding the secret pocket much easier than this. It would have been easier to reach most likely. But he still held to the reasoning he had before, it was safer to do it this way. Stiles slammed his head against the wall in frustration still searching for the hidden compartment.

 “Oh god he’s actually getting into it,” Lupe sputtered in shock.

 “Do you want some help?” Alek questioned suddenly much closer than Stiles had thought. He felt a warm hand settle into the curve of his back and before he could control his body it betrayed him leaning back into the heat.

 “I’m about to witness gay porn. I am not the right twin for this shit.” Lupe continued on in his ongoing tirade of disbelief and car crash horror.

 Stiles felt like he was choking on air as he tried to stop himself from dying from laughter and confusion while Aleksandr just covered his face and took in deep breathes and released them slowly.

 “Unless you think finding a secret compartment that can save us is sexual than this isn't going to become porn in any shape or form, meaning you should stop already.” Alek warned the beta not removing his hands from his face.

 “I assure you I have been informed  there’s porn that starts with some guy getting close and asking another guy if he wants help.”

 Stiles hung his head low in complete and utter disbelief at what was his life. He turned his head to the side as Alek fought to speak past his growing laughter, “Trust me if this was porn there would already be something other than air into Stiles' mouth."

 The way Lupe’s mouth and eyes popped open was more than satisfying.

“You should have placed a button as a marker instead of whatever it is that you did instead,” Alek lectured Stiles in a slightly suffering tone.

 “Look I’ll tell you the same thing I told my teacher, if it’s harder to differentiate for the world the safer and better it will be to serve me. I left a little raised area of stitching, no one will notice it unless they were looking and no one was looking. I’m sure of it.”

 “I could help you.” Alek offered again leaning a bit closer to him.

 Stiles rolled his eyes so hard he had to roll his head as well. He didn't raise his head to meet the eyes straight on and only glanced to the side and snorted. “I’m not sure how you think you could help me. I don’t need another pair of hands down my pants unless you really want this to turn into porn. Which I asked you if this was going the porn or pain way a while ago.”

 Alek chuckled deep resting his shoulder against the wall letting his eyes drop down Stiles’ body and slide a slow walk up before stopping at his occupied hand. His tongue slid out slowly to lick his bottom lip. “I think you’re doing a good enough job with what you have. Unless you think an orgasm would help you focus better?”

 “Please stop!  I can hear everything! Oh my god stop!” Lupe whimpered slapping his hands on the ground like a toddler in the throes of a tantrum.

 Alek gave an aborted laugh that turned into a cough. Stiles hated that he had a good laugh. He hated that the guy looked not like a god but he looked pretty. Really pretty and if he kept up his smiling and grinning and laughing Stiles was pretty sure he was going to have a boner that would need attention. Immediate attention. As if he knew exactly what Stiles was thinking Alek leaned closer to him. Stiles tried to pretend that his heart hadn't started to beat quicker or that he was trying to take smaller breaths so that there was less chance to smell him. The way Alek’s lips twitched up in a joker’s smile told him he was failing.

 Stiles went quiet as his fingers brushed over a  raised triskle and  a few crosses in the stitching. This was it. He fiddled with the thread a bit until he could  just pull out the right amount of to get to the items but still keep the pocket. He could need it for later. He laughed low and full of mischievous delight. It was no bigger than his palm and the fact that somehow the contents were hidden in his boxers and the fairies didn't pick up on anything was amazing to the two wolves. They didn't remember hearing anything moving around or making more noise than what would be normal for clothes.

 “Gentleman, let me introduce you to what will be your saviors other than me.” Stiles opened the small package pulling out each item one at a time and turning it to show the others before placing it back in the bag. “Mandrake for protection and health. Sage also for protection and healing. Clover for healing injuries and success. Ivy also for protection and healing. Comfrey to slow bleeding and aid in healing. And last but not least we have dill for protection and best of all, luck.”

Aleksandr stepped back from the wall and popped his knuckles as if he was getting ready to work,  “Is that all you need?” he offered without prompting.

Stiles gave him a slight grin, he understood him fully; the quicker they got out of this place the better everything would be. “I need some oak shavings to go with all of this. It’ll give us a bit more luck and protection.”

Lupe raised his eyebrows and made a show of looking around their prison before turning back. His mouth wrinkled into something that was more cheeky than searching, “Where exactly am I suppose to get that?”

Stiles rolled his eyes heavenward asking if he was just like this two years ago. Two years ago he was just a normal guy who was too nosy for his own good with a best friend who was too willing to follow him around in the middle of the night to find things that _sounded_ cool. Two years ago the worst thing he feared was getting a call in the middle of the night to find out that a routine call had turned deadly and his father was in the hospital. Two years ago his world was made up of regular black and white. The hardest thing he ever had to think about was how he was going to sneak healthy food into his dad’s lunch and how best to make Lydia notice him. Two years.

Sometimes he wonders what he would do if he could go back in time.

Stiles jumped as he felt a warm touch cup his jaw bringing him back to the world. He was zoning out too much. When was the last time he had taken his medication? He lifted his face away from the Alpha's hands  who was failing at showing how worried he was for Stiles' brief (god he hoped it was brief) moment of inattention. “The door is made out of oak. She probably has a thin layer of mountain ash layered between the wood so that you can’t get out. However if you use those claws of yours you could strip off some pieces for me.” He answered.

 “Any size will do?” Lupe questioned moving to the door and leaning up to peer through the bars checking to see if there was anyone nearby.  

 “Big enough to hold and smaller than your pinkie should be okay.”

 “And what would you have the big bad alpha do, stand around and look pretty?” Alek teased.

 “Well that depends,” Stiles drawled moving away from the alpha and walking towards the back of the room.

 “Depends on what? How hard I can blow?”

Stiles didn't reply for a moment, instead he cupped his hands in front of his face and blew as hard as he could, checking his lung capacity. “Well it depends on how hard you can punch. Don’t lie, please. I honestly need to know.”

 Alek titled his head to the side as if looking at Stiles in another angle would suddenly enlighten him. Judging by the way he pursed his lips, Stiles was betting that it didn't improve anything. “I need a scale to compare.” Alek suggested.

 “Can you break stone, more to the point can you break the stone in this room?” Stiles supplied.

 Alek slid his hands through his hair and looked at the ground in silence for a few moments without replying. Stiles let him as he tried to force his mind to concentrate on what The Crone and the druid had drilled into his head about magic theory and history. It was amazing the amount of information that Deaton had just either brushed to the side or flat out did not inform them about from other magic areas.  Maybe he thought knowledge was better once found or some yoda cryptic shit like that. He got it he did, the guy couldn't have all the answers and sometimes the way he taught them allowed them to grow. He didn't hate the guy but the two months he had spent at the Magic Nest hadn't endeared him to Deaton. Maybe he was channeling too much of the Crone's opinion.

 “How much do you need me to break?” Alek replied sitting on the floor with his fist raised at the ready.

 “Really? You have enough energy to do that? I mean you’re still hurt.” Stiles asked.

 Aleksandr only shrugged in reply eyeing Stiles expectantly.

 Stiles huffed out, muttering to himself about alphas and thinking they had to go to the ends of the world until they were tipping over the edge into death’s pool to feel they were doing anything. “Make a hole that’s as big as two of your fists please And when you’re done Lupe, I need you to bring the shavings and place them into the hole Alek is making.” He ordered.

 “And what-” Alek waited a moment to make sure that his first punch hadn't caused anyone to come running towards them before he continued on. “What are you doing?”

 “I need to figure out the cardinal points so that I can mark them.” Stiles informed him picking up a small handful of mountain ash before releasing a breath out in the air as if he were about to blow out a candle. “I call the powers of the north, the south, the west, and the east to guide my powers and give me peace. Show me the way the earth crumbles and show me the way the air rumbles.”

 There on the floor in front of where he had uttered the request to the right a crack emerged in the floor marking the north direction. Stiles let the ash fall out as he formed a letter N before he turned to the right of the N where a slight breeze picked up some of the ash on the floor. He made a letter E on the ground there before turning to the left and making a W and at the last part he made an S.

 “Can I ask what’s going on exactly?”Alek asked in what came out more like a demand than the easy going personality he had shown earlier. Stiles assumed it was the Alpha that was suggesting under threat for answers now.

 “If I know the directions I can use that to help cancel some of her magic and use it to call upon her patron deity.”

 “What do you mean?” Lupe questioned.  

 “Most supernatural people or species are tied to a certain element that's tied to a certain direction. Beyond those two main links there’s also archangels and suits that are linked to the elements. Fairies are linked to the element of air which is connected to the angel Raphael. I’m hoping I can convince him to listen and lend a hand against this. Plus he’s suppose to help with healing so the more the merrier”

 “Angels are a thing!? ” Lupe exclaimed.

 “I’ve heard whispers that there were things like demons. That the first werewolves came about because of the hounds of hell were let free once too many, but I’ve never heard about angels helping.” Alek offered.

 Stiles shrugged. He had joined Lydia, Allison, and Kira in a weekend long exploration about the origin of weres that had included the tale of Lycaon, Dolon, Neuri, and the Ulfhednar. It had been filled with men turning into beasts because of curses, wearing the skin of the animals, or deals made with witches but never once had he heard the tale Alek mentioned. He made a note to ask the alpha about the tale later on if they both made it out of their situation, alive.

 “Are you done with the door?” Alek asked his beta turning around to check on him.

 “Right now, yeah I’m done.”

 “Bring those pieces to me so that I can pulverize them into a powder, or something close.” Alek commanded reaching out a hand to take the collection to place into the holes he had made for Stiles.

 “You’re going to use it like a mortar and pestle?” Lupe guessed sitting down as Aleksandr started on his task pausing every few seconds to glance at Stiles who was muttering under his breath what sounded like rhymes.

 “Jace does it from time to time and he’s a druid so it stands to reason that this is what we should do with the shavings. Powder form will be easier to spread also.” Alek pointed out.

 “What if he needed the oak in shavings and not powder form?”

 Aleksandr paused to look up at the beta who was giving him his most innocent look possible which in all honesty was more wry than innocent. He leaned close to Lupe letting his canines grow as his eyes bled red, “Well then, I guess someone will just have to go get more for him, won't they?” He leered.

 Lupe huffed back a laugh in reply and relaxed as Alek went back to what he was doing. He looked over to Stiles who was still busy muttering to himself. He frowned suddenly thinking about something he wanted to ask, “Stiles, I have a question.”

 Stiles brought a single finger up in the air between them to pause his words while he kept whispering. Once he seemed to be finished he turned to the werewolves looking first to Alek. “Thanks for doing that by the way. Would you mind crushing the other ingredients with that?”

 Aleksandr side-eyed Lupe meaningfully while the beta’s mouth twisted into something not quite a pout but also something not exactly a full blown laugh. Alek gave Stiles a smirk as he took the bag of plants and herbs and poured them into the roughly made mortar.

 Stiles raised what he hoped conveyed all of his questions into his eyes and eyed Alek who only mimed closing his mouth and sealing away the key in response. He frowned wondering what was being kept from him.

 “So back to my question…?” Lupe repeated.

 “Oh yeah,” Stiles waved his hand for him to go on.

 “Do all of your ‘spells’ have to be in rhyme form?” he asked.

 “You have a druid in your pack?” Stiles inquired.

 “His name is Jace.” Alek interjected

 “Well have you ever heard...Jace…use a rhyme for his work?”

 Lupe shook his head no.

 “Well, witches are the only ones who use rhymes in their spell work. Sometimes you have to do it for the spell and sometimes it’s an option. Intent isn't the only thing that has to be used.” Stiles replied.

 “Harry Potter didn't use rhyming spells.”

 “Real witch magic is more Hocus Pocus and a lot less Expecto Patronum.” Stiles tried explaining moving his hands in wand like movements. “Even that isn't a full explanation really. Just, witchcraft  is powerful magic. It suffers less of the limitations even Sparks have.”

 “So I should try to-”

 “NO!” Stiles thundered . He made his body calm down, making sure his heart beat steady and slow. “I’m sorry, I didn't mean to react like that, it’s just-don’t try to become a witch. It’s something either that happens to you after a series of unfortunate events or something you’re born into with no other form of escape. Do you understand?” He tried to explain.

 Stiles raised his hands and dragged them through his hair pulling hard on it forcing himself to calm down, he couldn't afford to have a panic attack now. He couldn't afford to have a moment to breath and think about his life other than the fact that he had to get out of there. He couldn't think about the fact that his ribs were most likely going to be worst than bruised when he got out of there. He couldn't think about how there was a good chance that if he didn't help this pack to get out soon then there was a good chance his wounds were going to become a problem soon.

 His life, ladies and gentleman, one game of survival to the next.

 “Most witches,” Alek whispered just quiet enough that Stiles could still pick up his words perfectly. “Won’t live to the age of fifty.”

 “How many witches have you met before?” Stiles questioned not moving his eyes away from the youth (and what a reality it was that he was the “adult” in this) to give him a break.

 Aleksandr didn't answer him. "Witches have some of the worst life expectancies. Think about that. Would you sacrifice your twin to be a witch?”

“No, God no. Who would even-”

 "Magic comes at a price, and most times it’s a price you would rather die than give." Alek insisted.

 “Most don’t have a choice. Witchcraft is the one magic that you don’t play with, you survive it.” Stiles finished raising his eyes to meet Alek's in understanding.

 “Maybe we should start with the magic ritual now?” Alek suggested already moving to help Stiles move back to the little indent in the stone floor that held the ingredients.

 Stiles let Aleksandr move him until he felt steady before moving away. He still had to do more preparation. He pinched a small bit of the mountain ash that lined the walls and started to slowly fold it with the already powdered ingredients letting his spark of belief slide down through his body. He believed that the ash would grow until there was enough to envelope the mixture in black. When he felt the light tug from his bellybutton he knew it was working.

 “Why not just break the line and let us run out?” Alek questioned.

 “If your mountain ash line is made by magical means then the moment there’s a break in the line you’re alerted.” Stiles informed the Alpha not pausing in his task. He cut a glance to Lupe, “Lupe, I need you to lie down on the floor-no move closer to the cardinal points. Make sure your head is in the east direction. Yeah like that.”

 Stiles stopped mixing and released a breath. The tingle that was starting from his toes and making a slow yet sure climb up his bloodstream was just starting it’s firework display inside. When he worked like this, when he actually was allowed to use his magic (spark or whatever it was that he had) he felt as if he was a long forgotten robot finally given a spark of life again. He grabbed about half a handful of the mixture and stood over the beta.

 “You need you to cut your palm and make a half circle around yourself with the blood.” he instructed giving his most no nonsense look possible.

“Why do I need to bleed more?” Lupe countered.

 “You need to trust me-”

 “Blood is a different mat-”

 They both stopped to stare at Aleksandr who had taken his claws to the stone and raked them until they sounded worse than nails on a chalkboard. He slid his again crimson eyes to his beta and lifted his lips into a silent snarl that demanded submission fully. “Listen, you’re going to do exactly as he says,”

 “But-” Lupe tried only to have his alpha snap his jaws and snarl louder in response. He tried to lowering himself to the floor more than he already was, the only way to get lower would have been to seep into the floor.

 “You will listen to him.” Stiles didn't move or speak as he watched the alpha’s head curl and dip like a snake ready to attack. He really ignored the way he felt watching Alek take command. He ignored the part of his mind that was making a point to turn his head to gaze at the way a thick vein popped out of the Alpha's neck as he spoke (he loved a man or women in control sue him). “You will do everything he tells you to do. We don’t have time for you to ask questions and nick pick away, do you understand? Do you?” Alek snapped.

 Lupe nodded his head emphatically in reply as little whimpers found their way out of his mouth. He sliced his palm with his claws and did as he was told.

 “Anyway if he tries something, I’ll kill Stiles.” Alek added ignoring the way Stiles snapped his neck around to stare at him in confusion.

 Lupe released a mild snort relaxing as his blood flowed down into the half circle he was making, “As long as you remember who's your pack. No offense Stiles.”

 Stiles shrugged back in response finally understanding that threat; Alek and even Lupe may like his company at present but they weren't his pack. He had barely met them and it wasn't exactly in the best circumstance either. Lupe was making sure that his alpha had his priorities in check and Alek was confirming them. He shook his head and started moving in a circle around the beta letting the mixture pour out of his hand much like the mountain ash did all those years ago.  He kept up a steady stream of belief that the handful he had in his hands would be enough to encircle Lupe and still have some left over for the next part.

 “I don’t think you’re going to have enough-”

 “Quiet Lupe, let him work uninterrupted.” Alek advised standing away from them.

 Stiles kept going in silence until he had formed the circle and started to walk backwards making sure to create a line that branched off the circle around the werewolf and kept going until he was close to the roughly made mortar and pestle hole in the ground and made small circle that could fit his hands. He finally looked away from his “masterpiece” and locked eyes on Alek who was staring back at him.

 “Cut me, on both palms.” Stiles commanded thrusting his palms out to the alpha without pause.

 Alek’s eyes grew wide and even though he moved closer he shook his head in the negative.

 “We don’t have time for this. You have to cut me, I don’t have a knife to do it myself. This spell isn't going to be easy. Any healing spell attempted isn't easy and more times than not, painful. So,” he shook his outstretched hands palm up, “be quick with it.” Stiles muttered tightly.

 Alek’s lips pressed into a tight line before he did as was requested, never taking his eyes away from Stiles. When he was done Stiles moved quickly back to Lupe and started to let his blood drip on top of the dry mixture and followed it back to the smaller circle he had made away.

 Stiles sat down before the circle and placed his still dripping palms face down in the circle that just fit. He took in a deep breath, letting the sense of excitement and danger pour into his belly and mix around with his magic. It settled like a stone anchoring down to the earth, to the moment. He was focused in a different way that the medication never could get, the way that he only got when he was hot on a nice trail or a case.

 He released a deep breath and believed. He believed in his brain, his magic, and all that he was. This was going to work. This was going to work because he had a father to get back to. He had friends to see and annoy and laugh with. He had a brother from another mother and father who needed him alive to be his best man at his wedding. This was going to work because he was going to help this pack get home. He was Batman. This was going to work because failure wasn't an option.

 “Lupe, this is going to work. But it’s going to hurt both of us. I need you to trust me enough to help you. You need to listen to me okay?” Stiles implored breathing in deep. He noted that Alek had moved to a point between them that would allow him to reach either one of them.

 “Yes sir.” Lupe whispered with what could only be considered scared bravado.

 “Then let’s go.” He closed his eyes briefly before opening them again. “Air the ruler of life, aid me in my moment of strife. May the air within this room be forced within only these walls to  bloom. Leave a silence past our walls so that our plans will not befall.”

 There was a sudden series of snaps that clicked around the cell before a light shimmered on the door in white before fading away. Stiles nodded to himself happy The Crone had thought to teach him a basic but effective sound-proof spell. _“No one want’s to be able to hear when and to what you masturbate to.”_ If he was correct on his calculations this was  going to create more than a little ‘ruckus’.

 Stiles sagged a bit down knowing that the harder part was to come. He glance up through his lashes to see Alek leaning as close as he could towards his beta with full concern. He bit his lip and then straightened out for the next part.

 “In blood we are born and in blood we are torn. From the inside out, take out the poison that burns and harms throughout. Heal unknowns and all broken bones. I’ll pay the price, twice even thrice.” He shouted.

 Stiles expected the pain. He knew what those last words had meant but it still hurt.  He heard himself scream and felt the way his jaw snapped wide as if the more screams he could release the easier the pain would feel. It wasn’t working. What felt like lava with needles woven together started a twisted butterfly dance up his arms and towards his neck. Stiles thrashed his head back and forth wishing he could lift his hands to claw at his neck. But his hands had to remain on the ground. His suddenly felt as if a sicko kid had taken a butcher knife to a perfectly nice balloon and stabbed without mercy. He had no air with which to yell and finally could understand the horrors of a silent gasped out scream.

 He considered if it was too late to wish to die.

 ~

          _“Today I’m going to teach you the useful magic of healing.” The Crone waved her hands in the air as if her fingers were sparkles falling to the ground._

          _Stiles squinted his eyes at her in suspicion, “Druids can’t heal people. Nor can sparks. The most they can do is give you special mixtures that will help you to heal a bit quicker. Which translates into about one or two days earlier than usual.”_

          _The Crone sighed out loud as if she was long suffering and moved the black cat in her lap closer to her body and started to stroke the animal. “Are you a druid or a spark Stiles?”_

          _“No but-”_

          _The Crone’s hand snapped quicker than he thought she could move, even if she was in her early sixties and not really old, and bumped him on the head cutting off his words. “You’re unique Stiles. You don’t fit a mold and furthermore you showed that you could do some very witchy things.”_

          _Stiles shook his head still stubborn, “That doesn't mean I can do anything. I’m not some ultimate level hero in a boy’s anime who can just power up without limit.”_

          _“Did I ask you to become a demi-god? Did I ask you to go Goku levels?” The Crone gave a derisive snort “No I didn't. All I want you to do is try something out. I think you have the ability.”_

          _Stiles looked down at his lap not answering her for a while. She let him have his silence as she kept stroking the cat and gazed at the garden._

          _“Do I have to try this?” Stiles inquired looking back at her._

          _“Of course not, you are free to say no to me or any lesson you feel isn't for you to pass the normal curriculum. This is an experiment if you will, you’re free to say no. It’s just-” The Crone leaned forward until there was little room between their faces and Stiles could see the small lines around her eyes and the small bit of grey that blended well with her blonde hair. “Wouldn’t you like to really know your limits? No wonder or head bashing after you find out you had the ability and could have used it at some other time?”_

          _Stiles opened his mouth to reply to her and then shut it. He rested his chin in his hands and thought about how different things could have been if he had knew back then that he had the ability to do anything in the supernatural world. If he could have known then when Peter was trying to kill them in the school that he could have used mountain ash and trapped them...If he could have known that wolfsbane could be used to coat a bat in to fight off mind-controlled murder lizards...if he could have known there was something for him to do other than just be one of the brains in the multiple scuffles of their lives._

          _Stiles twisted his lips in a frustrated smile, “I want to try.”_

          _The Crone clapped her hands together in smug amusement before rubbing her hands together. “You’re going to heal that plant over there,” she pointed to a plant that had a broken stem. “And you’re going to heal this cat’s broken paw.”_

          _Stiles crinkled his nose and eyed his two options dubiously; he didn't even know where to begin._

          _“Oh, and Stiles.” The Crone paused him in his thoughts, “This is important, especially in healing magic. Healing magic at certain levels hurts. Think of it as an exchange-like childbirth!”_

          _“I-I-h-how is that even…?” Stiles stuttered looking at her in disbelief._

          _“Well think about it. Really think about it.”_

          _“I..pain in exchange for life?” he ventured shrugging his shoulders._

          _The Crone nodded her head patting him on his arm. “Exactly. So healing magic will hurt, especially because you’re not a witch and don’t have the resources to lessen or numb some of the pain.” She gave him a what-can-you-do shrug. “It sucks but think of the bright side, you won’t ever be dumb enough to try to bring back the dead. You are going to hurt. The more damage you have to heal the more it will hurt. And if you can heal people then you’re going to be in so much pain. The thing is, you can’t lose yourself.”_

          _Stiles frowned, “To what, the pain?”_

          _“To death,” The Crone sighed. “Death is a cruel thing. It gets ticked off when you try to take away it’s prey and because of that it’ll try to drag you down. If you lose yourself to the pain too far, you will die. You will die and you’ll take your ‘patient’ with you. You won’t just fail but you’ll drag someone else down the dark tunnel with you.”_

 ~

The first thing he heard was the sound of yells from a mouth that wasn't his. Stiles was breathing hard and jagged. He had nearly been lost to the pain for a second there. He looked towards Lupe and bit his already bleeding lips. The beta was floating about five inches off the ground with his back bowed. Alek was wolfed out straining against  the barrier the magic had created with the use of mountain ash. The alpha was bellowing at his beta trying to get closer. He was sweating and cut around his fingers that were getting hurt more than anything.

 Stiles looked back to Lupe ignoring everything else. Lupe still had cuts along his body, he wasn’t healed. He shook his head trying to understand what had went wrong. He had done everything. The ingredients, the blood of the castor and the person, the words, the magic, the connect-.

  He had forgotten about that.

 

          _“The closer you are to knowing your subject the better you can heal. The more you can heal. Twenty questions won't do but it’s a nice start.. You’ve got to know their drives, their goals, the very thing that makes them who they are. The more you know someone the better you can understand them. The better you can understand them the easier it is to get how they work, from their soul to their body.” The Crone wagged her finger at him._

 

“Lupe!” Stiles yelled trying to give himself some measure of calm. He needed the beta to feel like everything could be okay.

 Lupe took a while to reply and when he did it was a pained groan, “What?”

 “I need you to trust me. I need you to tell me about yourself.” Stiles urged feeling a slow shake start in his arms.

 “My favorite…my favorite color is red. I….I-I like burritos but not because I’m from Mexico but because they taste great.” Lupe struggled to say. “I...love...my twin. I love...her.”

 Stiles felt a sharp stab in his back and a chill in his legs. He looked at Lupe and saw a black light that was fading from those parts of his body. It was working. He took a few more breaths trying to prepare himself for the pain that had yet to come.

 “Lupe, I need more. I need to know you to make this easier. I-It’s the only way.” Stiles pleaded. He wasn't sure how much more he could take but he knew he had to keep going.

 “I...don’t know.”

 “Lupe! You have to try! Tell about how you became a wolf. Tell him why you are a wolf. Tell him about your sister. Please he needs this for the magic.” Alek begged already no longer morphed but still leaning against the barrier.

 Lupe twisted his head left and right as if he was looking at something that moved around his head for a few seconds not answering the two older teens. He made deep labored breaths that could be heard throughout the room. Stiles thanked the air for letting him use it’s abilities to block out the sounds.

 “My mother...was...a bitch. I...am...an...identical twin...originally. But….my brother…was always...my...sister. Mother hated Camilla for...never...being...the perfect...boy. My twin...is my sibling...no matter...girl or boy as long….as they are happy. Camilla would...try...to get away...with little ways of feeling...alright. Mom...the bitch...found her...one day when...she was wearing a dress.” Lupe wheezed out slowly.

 Stiles saw a flash of black light slide through Lupe’s chest and another band of the light wrap it’s way around his neck. Stiles felt claws raking their way through his chest and what felt like fingers tighten around his throat. It was working.

 “She threw Camilla out the house. She threw her own daughter out of her house because she was….too pigheaded to accept her daughter for being different.” Lupe kept on. The healing was making it easier for him to talk. “She warned my sister, her daughter, that if she ever came back she would 'kill the perversion out of her' even if she had to kill her in the process. When I came home she lied to me, told me Camilla had run away. But I knew she was lying. I knew it. When I heard her muttering to herself as she destroyed Camilla’s room.”

 “Keep going.” Alek softly encouraged moving slowly closer to Stiles who was panting harder and turning paler the more that Lupe healed.

 “I waited until my mother was asleep and then I stole as much money as I could and as much gold too. Then I packed a bag and left to go find my twin. I found her two nights later in an alleyway sleeping on the ground. I told her I was with her until the end and we are. It wasn’t much longer until I was attacked by a werewolf and Camilla tried to save me only to be attacked too. We were going to die and then...then Alek came with the pack and saved us. I would give plenty for the pack but I would give my all for my sister, my twin, my friend." He finished, only to have a bigger flash of black light encircle his body.

 Stiles felt as if there were brass knuckled fists slamming into his body as chains wrapped around his wrists holding his hands down. He started howling in pain the moment he felt what seemed like spiders jumping on his eyes with needles slipping through his flesh. He thrashed around sure he was going to break something, perhaps even his spine as his back suddenly bowed inwards and outwards repeatedly.

 It was a surprise when he suddenly felt an iron clad solid grip tighten around his body pulling him close to a warmth that started to warm his limbs. He sagged against the warm body he knew was Alek’s, making sure not to move his arms away from the circle yet. The arms that were supporting him were a welcome relief and calmed his heart down. He matched his heartbeat to the steady cadence of the one he felt through his back. The alpha held him as he kept shaking for what felt like an hour but was probably only ten more minutes.

 Stiles was only too happy to feel the spark of fire and “spark” that felt as if it was coming through his heart that told him Lupe was healed. He leaned away from the arms and wiggled a bit to be let go. Aleksandr complied but placed a hand on his back that started a slow rub up and down his tense muscles.

 Stiles closed his eyes and released a deep breath. “Magic that heals you have completed our deal. Leave now I make my appeal until the next reveal.” he whispered and what felt like a vacuum of power tore out of Stiles’ body.

 He would be lying if he told you he didn't embrace the sweet darkness of pure exhaustion and sleep that enveloped him like a glove.

 Vacations sucked.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love if you would tell me what you think about Lupe, Alek, Meghan, The Crone (yes I will reveal her name eventually), and even Stiles. Do you like the writing? Are you enjoying it? Is it pleasing you? Comments are always welcome and seriously wanted and loved. I am *hoping* I can have an update in three weeks. So yeah. I'm going to try. Anyway thank you so much for reading!


	6. Something Just To Take Off The Edge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The best time to have a conversation is when you're pressed up against a caring alpha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this was a really really really LONG wait between chapters. At least some of it is due to me and some of it is due to the fact that the internet/gmail hates both Momo & I and would not let her send the completed work to me. But finally here's one the chapters. I hope you like it. It's my birthday gift to myself. 
> 
> Beta'd by **[Momo](http://archiveofourown.org/users/momorune/) **.

_"… I'll be there when your heart stops beating_   
_I'll be there when your last breath's taken away_   
_In the dark when there's no one listening,_   
_In the times when we both get carried away.."_   
_(When Your Heart Stops Beating- +44)  
......................................................................_

_“Stiles I want you to listen to me.” The Crone started, her hand running through the self created tangles in Stiles’ hair as he rested his head on her lap. He had worked on healing magic all day; healing dogs, plants, a goat and even more cats. It felt like he was putting a bit of himself into every ‘patient’ without getting anything in return. He was tired to the point that when he had tried getting up to walk back to the house his legs had collapsed underneath him. The Crone had only tutted before manhandling him into the current position he was in, he didn't admit that it was relaxing and renewing to just breath in the incense._

_“I think I've been listening to you all week.” Stiles muttered cracking his fingers slowly not looking up to her face._

_The Crone slapped his shoulder particularly hard (seriously it had to be magic what made the lady so strong and quick) before she went back to carding her fingers in his hair. “I want you to listen to me and just for a moment consider some things. I don’t need anything else other than that. Can you do that?”_

_Stiles shrugged his shoulders slightly disgruntled that he felt like crap but thought better of his attitude when he considered how much The Crone had helped him. She was always there to give him advice and a forceful but needed nudge in the right direction.  “I’m all ears.”_

_“And legs and arms that you’re just growing into.” The Crone shot back with a slight chuckle before nudging his shoulder to move a bit. He moved back until he was sitting across from her and could actually look her in the eyes. “I want to talk to you about magic,” She waved her hand to his raised eyebrow. “I know that’s mainly all I've been talking to you about but this is a bit different.”_

_Stiles frowned and leaned in closer to her, “How is it different?”_

_“I’m getting there! You are so-never mind. Deaton should have told you about this but I’ll go out on a limb and predict that he didn't. Let’s talk about magic. What’s the first thing you ever learned about magic? What’s the first lesson?” She asked._

_Stiles leaned back from The Crone and pursed his lips thinking back to that day when Deaton had told him that he was needed. The day when he didn't think he was just a hopeless human playing in a game that wasn't made for the likes of him. The first time since he had changed not only his best friends’ but also his very life into something that was both beautiful and horrible at the same time. “The first lesson is that all you need is a good belief. If you can put faith in yourself and your magic, you can do nearly anything.”_

_The Crone’s face twisted to the side as if she had just tasted something too sour to swallow quickly. She released a long held-in sigh before looking around and to the sky as if asking for guidance. “He-he actually gave that as the first lesson!? Wha-what the hell was he thinking? I knew it! I told Charles! I told him plainly. Deaton may be a good druid but in no world is he the best teacher for magic, maybe morals, but never magic! To teach someone-Ugh!” She shouted, slamming her head into her hands and shaking her head back and forth in disbelief._

_Stiles just sat there staring at her in wide eye shock. She had never before acted so animated. “Um I don’t think it was so ba-”_

_“No! Shut up and sit down!” The Crone commanded not removing her hands from her face but rather peeking out at him as if she was afraid, she would have to return there too soon. “I’m going to tell you what the first lesson of magic is.” She started moving her hands to her temples and starting a slow massage. “You need to remember it because it’s the foundation of everything. From bringing the dead back to life to making your damn garden grow. The first lesson of magic is the lesson of price.”_

_Stiles tilted his head and narrowed his eyes not sure if this was correct. “I thought the lesson was ‘An It Harm None – Do as ye Will’ which you know sounds simple.” he questioned._

_The Crone snorted and released a short bark of a laugh shaking her head to herself. “Do you really think witchcraft would be as banned as it is if it was that simple? If it was that pure? That line while sweet is something that humans that have no magic hold true. It’s the type of thing that was probably started by a freaking druid if we really want to be honest. No, the real and true first lesson is price. There’s a price for everything you do in magic. Sometimes its energy and other times the price is blood or even your soul. The payment doesn't matter- well it does in the long run-what’s important is that you’re paying something._

_Stiles released a breath, “Magic isn't free.”_

_“That’s it right there, that’s what I've been trying to make sure you get. Magic will try to consume and control you if you let it.”_

_“So it’s a fight?”_

_The Crone clapped her hands and nodded giving him a small smile. “Exactly! Whenever you use magic you are playing a game, a game where you either live or die.”_

_Stiles turned his head to the side slightly in order to give her a proper side eye (she had to be kidding). “Game of freaking Thrones. Really?”_

_She waved her hands batting his invisible words away “Shh, it’s a good line..and it’s a very good show. Don’t look at me like that. Let’s get back to the lesson. Do you understand? If you learn nothing else, which trust me you’ll learn so much by the time I’m done with you, learn that simple truth.”_

_“That I've apparently signed away my rights and life by not knowing what was going on in the terms and agreement?” Stiles warily muttered. He crossed his arms and looked away quickly before looking back at her and grimacing. “I’m feeling so peachy.”_

_The Crone rolled her eyes at him without apology, “Oh please, it’s like playing Russian Roulette; there’s literally only one rule you need. Don’t die!”_

~

Stiles jerked awake suddenly as if stung, at first very confused. He was looking at a wall while strong hands held and stroked his back in small calming circles. For a second he thought he was back in his room and he had just woken from a nightmare that had called his father into his room again. For a second he was about to snuggle closer and thank his dad for everything. For a second he forgot that he was in a version of hell and that he didn't have anyone, not his dad or best friend not even his pack, to come and save him.

That only lasted a second.

Stiles felt like shit. He felt like shit and he was completely okay with the idea of doing this again if it meant he was going to get out of this unwanted dungeons minus dragons situation. He moved his arms onto unsurprisingly toned shoulders ready to push away from the comfort only to sag back down. Stiles frowned to himself wondering  if he had overdone it somehow. His arms weren't suppose to feel like they were feathers supporting lead. He closed his eyes blocking everything out of his mind and concentrating on his body. The Crone had drilled the thought into his head to always check his body mentally, if not physically, whenever he worked with magic. After two years and growing of dealing with the way his life was now, it really had already become second nature to check his person whenever he woke up. You never knew if someone had kidnapped you while you were sleep (god that had been the worst thing ever). Everything was in order until he realized that one of the hands on his back wasn't moving at all.

“What are you doing to me?” Stiles questioned trying to turn his body around to get a proper look.

Aleksandr tisked softly before he placed his hands underneath Stiles’ arms and lifted him until he was sitting with his back to his chest. “I’m trying to take away a bit of your pain but if you'd rather suffer well...you’re just going to sit here and let me do it anyway.” He supplied in answer.

Stiles let his head fall back against the warmth that was encircling him trying to ignore the little part of him that was actually trying to take a moment to address the fact that a very attractive guy, man, was holding him caringly even though they had barely met.

 It had taken him about a year with Derek to even get to this level of closeness. He closed his eyes in silent plea for his mind to shut the hell up already, he didn't have time to think about this crap right now. When he was under some version of control he looked around a bit to find Lupe curled into a fetal position and sleeping.

“His heart beat went back to normal about, well damn I guess I don’t know how long ago actually. It felt as if it could have been an hour ago though.” Alek commented still letting one hand twirl lazy circles onto Stiles’ skin while another one kept a firm hold on him.

“Wait a second-an hour? How long have you been pain sucking me for?” Stiles demanded, body jerking to attention as he turned his face towards the alpha.

“About an hour give or take about fifteen minutes here or there. I had to check on Lupe first, but I can’t exactly get through your mountain ash circle so it was more ‘use all your senses to check without the option of touch’ so a bit limited really.”

Stiles squinted his eyes in confusion tinged with a healthy amount of suspicion. “How the hell have you been draining me for that long? I don’t feel,” he shook his head a bit to clear it. “I don’t feel as far gone as I should be. I should be so...I shouldn't be able to talk much right now.”

Aleksandr tilted his head so that he could look him in the eyes and only raised an eyebrow in response. Stiles raised his back in question only to have the alpha give him a ‘really?’ look. When his eyes started to glow crimson, starting from the center outwards, and his grin started to grow Stiles still wasn't sure about the explanation.

“Seriously? I’m an alpha? We can control how much or little pain we consume? Alpha physiology 101 by any chance ring any bells in that head of yours?”

Stiles’ eyes blinked slowly for a moment before he bopped himself on the head. He had completely forgotten about that little fact. Derek had said that there were difference between what an alpha could do and what a beta could do beyond just having more strength in a fight or resistance to certain things. The Crone and Druid had him even look over and remember most of those differences for one of his lessons. The pain taking mojo was getting to him, or maybe it was the magic or perhaps even the pain?

“Now would be a good time for you to stop using your magical fingers on me.” Stiles suggested not moving his body away. He needed all the warmth he could get, he didn't have the ‘warming’ ability werewolves had and he felt cold on the stone away.

“Trust me, I haven’t been using my magical fingers yet. If I was- well let’s say you would have forgotten more than just simple facts.” He leered with a devilish smile of promise.

 Stiles gave his best cheeky grin, the one that got him punched the most when dealing with enemies and finally (finally!) could get him free drinks at the Jungle. “Down boy, you don’t want me to squirt you do you?”

Aleksandr choked on air as he started to laugh as quiet as he could, finally pulling his hands away from Stiles` body and resting them on the floor on either side of him. Stiles tried to keep his body from blushing fully but from the way he suddenly felt hot all over he knew he failed.

One of these days his mouth was going to get him into trouble.

Lupe shuffled in his sleep causing both to turn towards him in unison. The alpha sighed finally moving Stiles out of his lap so he could move as close to the barrier as he could before he laid down and started to hum softly to his beta. Stiles stayed where he was, watching as unconsciously the beta moved closer to his alpha until he was on the edge of the barrier himself.

If he was being honest with himself the twinge he felt in that moment was jealously. He wanted so much to be back home with his little pack of misfits, geniuses, killers, villains, and heroes. He missed snarking to Erica with Derek interjecting every now and again only to be out snarked by the Creeper King, Peter. He was feeling nostalgic to the days where Boyd would just pat him twice on the back to convey the fact he cared while Jackson would only give him a slight flick on the shoulder when he knew he was feeling like shit. He actually wanted Isaac to flash his sadistic(the guy was a freaking a fallen angel do not even start with him on the debate) smile at him before punching the enemy of the week (or month) behind him and getting both of them bloody. He longed for Allison and Kira being killer Disney princesses who killed you with a smile or weapon. He craved his  small but deadly, dressed to kill because she really was okay with getting her hands dirty as long as it was in style, friend. He wanted his best guy friend since elementary who always had his back, who he knew better than he knew himself some days.

Stiles wanted his pack.

Not because he was in danger and could use some help, though that would be nice too, but because when shit got tough and life was shoving limes and lemons down your throat it was nice knowing that someone else was right there with you. It was comforting to know you were falling to Hell in a bread basket with a bow on top with others right beside you in your decent.

“When can you open the circle?” Aleksandr questioned not turning his head away from Lupe’s sleeping form. Stiles glanced at him only to sigh at the way the guy was gazing wistfully at his beta’s form. It was probably killing him not being able to actually touch him, to assure both his human and ‘animal’ side that his packmate was okay.

“I don’t want to open it until he’s awake. The magic could still be working on him. He’s going through a healing sleep most likely.” Stiles replied easing his back against a wall where he could  watch both of them and the door.

“How can you think about doing this again? You’re still in some form of pain. We’re not even a part of your pack.” Alek asked turning his eyes away from his  beta for a moment to pin Stiles with a look that seemed to try to tear apart his psyche more than judging him and his life choices.

Stiles shrugged softly, careful not to move his body too much. Aleksandr wasn't exaggerating at all when he said he was in some form of pain. He felt like shit, as if someone had taken a bat to his body. Which is seriously telling of the life he's lived that he knows how that feels. "It's the right thing to do and we need to help each other."

 "You have a death wish don't you?"

Stiles gave him a self deprecating smile. He couldn't argue against that observation in the least. If Derek had a 'try until you're about to die and try again' complex then Stiles had a 'you could die doing this so let's try even harder' complex. Scott had a hero complex which did match perfectly with Isaac's 'please people you care about to the point of pain' complex. Hell every single person in his pack had a complex except maybe Kira or Boyd. If you removed their powers they honestly were the most normal of the bunch. Which was kind of sad when you considered it.

"So," Alek started, sitting up and turning his body away from Lupe to give Stiles his full attention, not that Stiles didn't think he wasn't still paying attention to his beta. "You need to know something about the people you're going to heal in order to make it work? Can you heal yourself easier then?"

Stiles shook his head in the negative. "That's one of those limits to the power. You can't heal yourself as well as you can others. Otherwise if there weren't limits then witches, hell anyone, would be able to live forever or even not just that. Cheat death. We can’t heal ourselves at all, actually. But yeah, the more I know about a person, like in a quick summary or even more, helps the healing. The more I know the better it works. ' _The better you can understand them the easier it is to get how they work, from their soul to their body.'_ "

" _'Bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death_ '" Aleksandr quoted raising an eyebrow in amusement as Stiles just blinked in shock at what he was hearing. The guy not only read Harry Potter, he knew the quotes to the point that he could quote it at random. It was like the guy wanted him to jump him. "I should tell you about Meghan, goodness knows that she won't be inclined to share even on a good day-"

"And we don't know if she's even going to be in any shape to talk when they bring her back." Stiles finished staring into his eyes in understanding.

Aleksandr nodded his head in response frowning at the ceiling as if it was it’s fault that he was stuck in the situation they were in. Stiles let him have his peace. He had better things to do while the alpha had a mental conversation with himself, namely trying to make sure that he didn't show how much the pain was slowly getting to him now that he wasn't having it drained anymore. The magic hadn't helped his already bruised body at all with what it had done while he was healing Lupe. He doesn't pay attention to anything until he feels hands circling around his wrist along with a sudden decrease in pain before it slows down to a trickle.

“What are you-?”

“You’re still in pain and as much as you will possibly complain about taking too much, you could use some leaching.” Alek stated picking Stiles up and placing him sideways in his lap so that he could still see the door, Lupe, and Aleksandr all at the same time without having to turn around much at all. “Plus talking to you about our past history might take a while.”

Stiles squinted at him in grudging acceptance but he made sure his displeasure was fully in his voice when he talked. “There is such a thing known as consent, you do know this right? As in maybe you could ask for it before you just pick people up?”

“Sorry it’s just-,” Alek paused scratching the side of his face looking off to the side to avoid his eyes, “I’m just used to taking care of the hard headed ones in my pack who require a bit more physical persuasion when it comes to getting help.” Stiles only raised an eyebrow in response.  “How about this, I’ll give you, what does Camilla call it? I’ll give you your ag _ency a_ nd choice until I think that listening to your assurance that you’re okay is enough and that I need to do an intervention in order to save you either pain or death?” He offered up.

 Stiles opened his mouth to tell him he was sort of kidding about the asking for permission, then he closed his mouth quickly. Derek, Erica, hell most of the pack really (especially fucking I-can-never-die Peter) never really asked before touching people. Which is where some of the issues of distrust among them in the beginning stemmed from. “Deal, unless I say I revoke the need.”

“Seal it with a kiss?”

“Wrong time, wrong place, and how about no?”

The alpha laughed in amusement shaking Stiles with the way his whole body moved in his laugh. He calmed down leaving just a slight smirk on his lips, which really, if he kept his mouth like that during this whole ‘personal history’ telling thing then Stiles was going to have issues, _major_ issues, with paying attention.

“I guess,” Alek began releasing a deep breath. He hunched over closing in on himself as if he was getting ready for imaginary fist to start attacking him. Stiles started to question if this was such a good idea.

“I guess the only way to start is with my past. We...we were the Volkov pack, named after my father’s last name who was the alpha, as was his father and his grandmother before then. We lived in what was then a part of Siberia but is now it’s own place. We lived in Kosovo, more to the point we lived in the Rugova Mountains.”

“You lived in the mountains…” Stiles interrupted.

Alek placed a finger close to his lips but did not touch them fully for silence. “We lived in the Rugova Mountains as our family had done for years. We were a small pack of about thirty members including the children. We were small but we were strong. My father was a good alpha who cared for both those who were tied by blood and those who called our pack family. We were so happy.” Alek paused pulling a hand away from Stiles to run his fingers through his hair shakily. “I was the third of four children in my family. My brother was the eldest and never had time for us kids. He was always trying to learn what he could from our father, he wanted to prove to him that he could be alpha. My eldest sister was only an hour younger than him and she tried just as hard to prove her worth to our father.  The youngest was...was...was..fuck.”

The alpha grew quite quickly biting his bottom lip so hard that a trickle of blood was dripping from the corner. Stiles wanted to touch him, to tell him he knew what it felt like to lose someone close to him. To tell him that he didn't have to keep going on if this was going to hurt him so much. He had more than enough. To tell him that he was there for him.

“We-We should have known something was wrong, but they never considered the fact that someone might want to harm us. O-O-Our emissary died a month before it all went to hell. Tamara would wake up in the middle of the night and sneak into my bed, she said she heard noises. We told the adults but they didn't think it was anything. I had just turned 10 and the noises were still scaring her and no one did anything ….and then...then one night they all died. Every single pack member who was older than twelve was killed and there was nothing. Nothing I could have done.”

Stiles moved his body closer to the alpha not caring that earlier he had questioned himself about getting closer. He knew he needed comfort of some sort and if he could only cuddle next to him then he was going to make sure he did the best cuddle he could. He wanted to comfort the guy so much and tell him, like he always tried to tell Derek, that it wasn't his fault. That he didn't deserve to drown in the guilt because it wasn't his damn fault. He was even younger than Derek was when he lost everything and he couldn't even imagine how that had messed him up.

 “Was it,” Stiles started, “Was it hunters?”

Aleksandr gave a humorless laugh, eyes flashing and staying red as he turned slowly to pin Stiles with eyes that tore through his body straight to his heart.

“No, it wasn't hunters. God,” The alpha laughed without a pinch of humor in his voice. “I wish it had been hunters. No, it was another pack. A pack that wanted more power and slaves. Out of a pack of thirty only six of us, including me, were ‘saved’ from a quick death. We were thrust into hell. The alpha-. No, that whole fucking pack were worse than demons. They were monsters who conquered and killed anyone they didn't think they needed or anyone who didn't obey them. He beat us, kids, into submission or as near as he could get...I...I wasn't sure I would heal at all from that...one of the kids...one of them died! He beat her until she died!” Alek roared baring his teeth into the air in pain.

 _Fuck it_ Stiles thought moving his body up so that he could envelop him into a hug. Aleksandr buried his head into his chest as Stiles stroked his back and head the way his dad used to stroke him when he would wake up from horrid nightmares as a kid. He held in the tears that wanted to fall from his eyes at the pain and anger he felt for Aleksandr. He had broke when he had heard what had happened to Derek who was about sixteen or seventeen at the time and look at how bad that had fucked that guy up. He bit his lips thinking about how much worse this would have been on a ten year old kid. Aleksandr was still shaking while his hands gripped him hard. Stiles didn't even think about telling him to loosen his grip.

“You don’t,” Stiles assured him giving him a hard squeeze back, “you don’t have to keep going, really you don’t have to do this to yourself.”

Aleksandr pulled away slowly and looked across to Lupe who had stirred a bit during the time but still was sleeping. He leaned back against the wall and drew Stiles closer to him releasing a deep breath when he fixed his arms back around him. “No, I-I need to finish. It, it would be better for me, okay?” Stiles only nodded afraid he would say something that wasn't wanted yet. “He forced us to work for him, well the whole pack had to work for him. When I turned twelve I was forced to fight in underground fights to bring him money. There were only four of us left alive. I was threatened with winning or suffering worse than anything I could think up. So I won as many fights as I could. When I turned fifteen, after proving myself not only in fights and ‘jobs,’ he made me head beta. There were only three of us then. I hated him, I hated how he made me fight or die, obey him or risk the others suffering. I hate him still.

I wished someone else would rise up and beat him, backstab him much like they killed Julius but none did. You wanna know the irony? I was his top beta, and made his top guard, even though I would have been more than happy to have killed him with my bare hands. But I was afraid I couldn’t win. I was afraid until… until my youngest sister, my last pack member, tried running away. She couldn’t take it anymore...they had forced her...they...She got caught. She was caught about five miles away and they brought her before the fucker and he killed her.”

Stiles doesn't move when Aleksandr slams his fist into the floor beside them. He remains still, both afraid to move in case the alpha turns his anger on him and afraid to bring the guy out of the memories he’s in.

“He killed her. He killed her in body the way he had more than killed her in spirit. And I didn't care anymore. I stopped caring.That was it. He had nothing on me anymore. I didn't care if I lived or fucking died. I didn't care. What else did I need to care about? My entire pack was dead and I didn't do a thing to save them. I didn't care. I was done with life, with obeying, and most of all I was done with him. So at the next fight while he was so glued to the carnage below him, while he drank his fill of the pain he forced on innocents, while his head was turned because he didn't think anyone would betray him; I killed him. I killed him in cold blood. I rammed my claws through his neck and yanked back and there was blood redder than sin and I celebrated in it.

“There was just one problem. I kind of wanted to live when I was done with him. So I ran as fast as I could run. I knew there was a rival pack in the area that wanted his land and numbers. I ran to them covered in blood and I offered a trade, land and pack members to do what she wanted with as long as I could get safe passage out. She was too happy to agree, and told me I had twenty-four hours to get out of her town. I left in six with as much money and clothes as I could carry. I might have even left a good amount of bodies in my wake, they all deserved it.”

Silence comes to them and for once Stiles can’t convince himself to move. He remains still and quiet as Alek breaths in and out deeply as if the trip down memory lane was something he had to run through or else he would be swallowed up in darkness. He can’t imagine how the alpha could have survived, sixteen and an alpha already with more baggage and pain than any teen should have to deal with. He bites his lips thinking sadly how if this is Aleksandr’s story he isn't too sure he wants to know how Meghan’s story goes. Maybe this is the real reason not many people know how to heal, carrying others stories isn't a simple game of truth or dare.

“I, I can’t say I understand fully what it felt like to lose every single person in your life like that. I lost my mother to cancer when I was ten.” Stiles started to tremble a bit as he always did when he talked about her. It had been about eight years but it still felt as if it were yesterday; as if she was there sitting on the bed in their house trying to smile for him even though she was in so much pain. He felt the hard squeeze of assurance along with the ways that the alpha’s body shook with each breath he took. Stiles just held on harder. “You lost so much I can’t even imagine-”

“Ay dios mio, I’m alive!” Lupe exclaimed causing both boys to turn to him quickly. The beta was grinning and flexing his hands and claws in and out repeatedly as if he couldn’t believe it. “I’m alive. God I’m alive.” He kept repeating not turning away from his self inspection of his body.

Stiles moved his body away from Aleksandr who as if in a daze still placed him on the floor and crawled on his hands and knees towards his beta. He tried reaching through the barrier to Lupe, forgetting the fact that there was moutain ash in his way. He jerked away hissing in pain while Stiles rushed over to break the circle.

“There, you should be able to touch him now.”

Alek only glanced at him in thanks before grabbing Lupe up in a tight hug that had his legs raised up in the air. Lupe grabbed him back and started laughing in between startled breaths.

“I’m so happy you’re better.” Alek whispered rubbing his cheek against his beta like a big cat.

“I-I feel like, it feels like the first time I changed. It feels like my first moon.” Lupe sobbed burying his head between his alpha’s head and shoulder. He took deep breaths of his alpha's scent as if he was trying to make sure that he never forgot his smell, the smell of pack. “I didn't know it felt so wrong to not feel the wolf, to feel the power. But it’s back and I- it feels horrible. If there’s a cure to being a werewolf please, please don’t ever give me a cure. Please don’t. I don’t want to stop being pack.”

Aleksandr just crooned and held him close pulling Lupe’s legs around him as if he was a young child. “I would never do something like that to you. And even if you somehow stopped being a wolf, you would still be pack. You’re always going to be my beta until the day I die. Do you understand me? You’re mine forever kiddo.”

 “I’m not Ralf.” Lupe muttered finally calming down a bit.

“No you’re not, but you’re no less important.” Aleksandr gave him a quick nuzzle to his forehead. “You should thank Stiles though, he healed you.”

Lupe turned to where Stiles was still sitting down on the ground by the open mountain ash circle and smiled before frowning in confusion. “Why haven’t you healed yourself yet dude?”

“Limits to magic and all that. I can’t heal myself, just others.”  
“That sounds like such bull.” Lupe expressed finally unwrapping his legs from Alek and pulling away from him to sit close by. Stiles only shrugged in reply.

“As happy as I am that you’re healed enough to start trying quips about things. We have bigger problems. I need to tell Stiles about Meghan’s life and I don’t think we have much time.”

Lupe tilted his head to the side and bit his lip in thought, “You needed to know about me to get your magic to work?”

“He does need it,” Alek answered for Stiles. “The more he knows about a person the better it works. And you know Meghan-.”

“She most likely is going to snarl and bite before she tells him anything, mainly because she’s Meghan and secondly because he’s not pack.” Lupe nodded in understanding.

“Plus we need to get back home. We've been gone at least two days, the full moon is in three days. We need to try getting home before then.” Aleksandr insisted.

“Wait a second.” Stiles stared at them with wide eyes of disbelief. He shook his head for a second before looking at Aleksandr in question. “What do you mean the full moon is in three days? The full moon has to be tonight.”

“You must be wrong. The full moon was five days away when we went out that day.” Aleksandr argued.

“No I’m not.” Stiles felt his jaw tightening and stuck it out. He didn’t like someone hinting that he didn’t know what he was talking about. “When I was taken the full moon was the next night and I did not want to be on the streets, that’s why I was out. I know when the full moon happens, I’ve been in a wolf pack long enough to know when every full moon is coming. I know it was one day away and if it’s been hours already. The moon is full tonight!”

“Maybe,” Lupe tried raising up between the two, “Maybe you’re both right? I mean we didn’t get kidnapped on the same day and it’s not exactly easy seeing the days and time here in this cell.”

Stiles backed away letting his mind consider a few things before he swore. “I should have known, fairies. Fucking fairies.”

“What do you mean?” Alek questioned.

“Fairies. Fucking fairies. They’ve been known to do crap like that. You’ve heard of changelings yeah?”

“Fairies are more Meghan’s area.” Lupe replied. He only shrugged in deference when his alpha squinted at him. “What?! I’m not being a bigot because she’s from Ireland. She tells Ralf fairy bedtime stories!”

Stiles blinked at him for a moment before looking back to Aleksandr. “Time might not work the same here. We’ve could have been gone for days to weeks and at worst maybe months on the outside while it feels much shorter here.”

Aleksandr nodded his head in understanding. “Then we’ve got to get the hell out of here then. The first step is healing up enough so that we can escape. I’ll tell you about Meghan.”

 

Lupe walked over to the door and looked out as much as he could down the hallway in both directions. “You better hurry before they come back. It’s been a while since they left.”

Alek tilted his head to the side indicating that Stiles should come back to where he was sitting before Lupe woke up. Stiles pressed his lips together but the alpha just raised his eyebrow in taunt. He even let a little bit of red bleed into his eyes. Stiles only raised his eyebrows back. He wasn’t going to let the guy think he could intimidate him at all. Stiles had and repeatedly stood up to alphas ordering him around. He wasn’t go to let some guy push him around.

“You’re going to need all the energy you can get, at least let me help out a bit?” Alek suggested.

Stiles leaned his head back and looked at the ceiling before sighing and giving in. The guy was right. He ignored the slight upturned grin of smugness that lit up Aleksandr’s face and just flopped down particularly hard into the waiting lap. Stiles squirmed around a bit until Alek snaked his arms around and held him fast to his chest to still him. The alpha sighed and nudged the side of his neck before huffing and settling his fingers on Stiles’ arms.

“Meghan, as Lupe said, originally came from Ireland. But that’s not where we met her. We met her in England. I had just gotten Selene to join our pack along with Jace. Jace had some contacts that wanted to meet him to finish some ‘ _business’_. So we all went along with him. This all was before Lupe and Camilla joined us.”

“It’s before Mama Killa and Ralf came along also!” Lupe added walking back to them and sitting down facing his alpha and Stiles. “It’s actually really badass. Well Meghan always is badass. And she is so-”

Alek snarled putting a pause to Lupe’s interruption. The beta closed his mouth and smiled in apology. He mimed zipping his mouth close. “As I was saying, Jace had some unfinished business to do. So we followed him to the underground market there. That’s where we found her. Some ‘ _markets_ ’  have fight rings of a sort. I had been in one when I was in Russia. The ones in America are much more tamed then anywhere else. There’s more order to it but I digress. The ring we found was not unlike what I had went through but was actually worst.

"The werewolves were treated like animals; they wore collars and there were batons and tasers and chains and whips and so much more. It was pretty much a dog fight arena where the shifters were the animals. Anyway, while Jace was busy I noticed that the three year champ is fighting that night. So I go take a look to see who the ‘master’ of this hell is and it’s this girl. This little girl who has to be at least twelve years old and it’s like looking into a mirror. There’s a kid who is wearing a collar attached to a chain and she’s fighting off at least three grown men and woman. She’s covered in blood and fighting as if she only knows how to survive.” Aleksandr pauses, breathing in deep. Stiles lifts one hand from underneath the alpha’s and places it on top. He starts rubbing up and down trying to sooth the shaky breaths that are rattling through Aleksandr's chest. Lupe whines softly and scoots closer until his knees are grazing his alpha. It takes a few moments for him to calm down again. He rubs his nose behind Stiles’ ear and gives Lupe a soft rumble of thanks.

“So I want to know more about this girl. I had seen her at least once before, she actually stole some food from my hands. Selene let’s her money do the work for her and we get to talk to the man in charge. He was human and he ran the whole area. He talked so easy once you greased his greedy clogs. He tells us Meghan isn't for sale until she loses her title. I...I-they were threatening her with the ultimatum of use her body to fight or else they’ll use her body in other ways to make money. It took everything to hold Selene back and then it took more to hold back my own response. Khoi was the only one who kept a level head through the conversation.

 

"We get a chance to talk to her through some means and, and it’s crazy. She’s so scared and it fucking hurt. She knows she has no choice, no rights, and that any day she can either lose her life or what ‘choice’ she still has. And I understand it so much. I get what it’s like. I understand the wish that the next opponent will be too much until suddenly you’re actually there and you want to live again. I get it. I wanted to free her right there but I knew that in a situation as crazy and horrible as that was, I had to let her take the option. So I tell her that if anything happens, to come find us.

We stay for five months and it’s not until the last month when there’s a knock on the door at two in the morning. It’s-it’s Meghan. She’s shaking and crying and just begging me to help her, that she’ll always be loyal if I just help her. That’s when Khoi smells the blood and suddenly we all realize she’s dripping in blood. A-apparently her ‘handler’ tried to--he tried---she killed him  and the whole entire fight ring came to attack her. She begged us to help her fight her pack so that she could finally be free and we do. We fight them all, leaving the innocent free and killed the rest….” Alek finally finishes.

“So she joins the pack and yeah another member to the ranks.” Lupe said reaching out to pat Alek on the knees.

Stiles was thinking about something he was considering. He peered back at Lupe before swinging his head around to Aleksandr. “Question, have you bitten any members in your pack?”

Alek finally quirked his lips in a slight smile. He shook his head in the negative. “I’ve never bitten a pack member yet. Every single member in my pack was made by someone else and joined me of their own free will.”

Stiles just blinked in shock. He didn’t know there were packs like that. He knew that there were packs made through family and those that came together through various means such as him, but he never knew that there were some where the alpha had never turned a single member. Objectively he knew that it was partly true for Scott since he hadn’t bitten the evil triplets of former doom or Jackson but Derek had and he was the main alpha of the pack.

Lupe suddenly twisted his head to the door and scrambled up. He looked back and forth between the mountain ash circle and the door before shrugging and putting his body in front of it with his back to the door. Alek started to growl under his breath as he picked Stiles up and placed him across the mountain ash hidden away.

“They’re coming already?” Stiles questioned letting the guy move him around since he wasn’t sure he would be able to move as fast.

“Yes.” Aleksandr kept a head tilted at an angle and kept glancing back with his eyes quickly as he looked over to both his beta and Stiles. “I’m going closer to the door. I’m going to wait until they throw Meghan inside and then I’m going to attack. Heal her as best as you can, okay? Both of you be safe.” He whispered before turning around quickly and rushing to the corner by the door and slumping against it.

Stiles kept his head turned away from the door and squeezed his eyes close. He hoped they didn’t feel or smell any magic in the air or else their plan was going down the drain. They only had one fully healed beta, they were going to need more than that if they wanted to do any damage at all and get out of there alive. The door creaked open slowly as the guards’ silhouettes fell over their prone bodies.

“Maleficent sure shut you up, didn’t she bitch?” One of them laughed scornfully. He grunted before something slammed onto the ground not too far from Stiles and Lupe’s bodies. Stile felt Lupe reach out to him with just the tips of his fingers. He wished he could have turned over and squeezed his fingers back.

“Funny how pathetic they are once you take a few worthless powers from them.” Another one commented. This one sounded like a women and Stiles refused to let that shock him, women were just as evil as men in a world of equality.

“How pathetic do you think I am fairy reject?” Alek snarled out followed by a hard clap of skin on skin contact. There was cursing and yelling for at least two minutes before they heard the crackle of electricity and the howl of the alpha in pain.  

“Fuck, I forgot she hadn’t taken care of the alpha yet. Shit he hit me good. Shake a little more for me doggy, I haven’t gotten enough of seeing you writhe in pain.” The guy snapped.

“Think he’ll piss himself if we keep it up long enough?” The woman pondered.

“We can keep it up until he dies. I don’t think the hunters ever shared their knowledge of how long it takes to kill one by electricity.”

Stiles bit his lips as hard as he dared to stop himself from turning around again to look. He knew Lupe was having a hard time listening to his alpha suffer in pain when he could just turn around to help. Stiles applauded him mentally for resisting the urge.

“I have a better idea,” The woman started huffing as if she had been running and not torturing an innocent man.

“Oh?”

“Why don’t we take him to Maleficent? She hates him enough, I doubt the kid will amuse her as much as this one can.”

“Good idea.”

There was sounds of protest and grunting before the door was closed again with a slam. Both boys stayed still for as long as they could hoping that the two guards had walked away far enough. They couldn’t chance it by turning around too early. If they did then everything they had planned would go up in smoke.

After what felt like at least an hour Stiles finally got up slowly from the ground and walked over to where he saw Meghan’s body lying. She wasn’t moving much if at all. Stiles panicked, _ShitFuckShitFuck_. He slid to her body and turned her around cringing back at the shape her body was in. He ignored it in favor of placing his hands on her pulse. He tried calming down a bit so that he could feel it but what he felt wasn’t good.

“Lupe get the fuck up and help she’s dying!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always welcomed! (seriously tell me how you feel about anything from the writing to the characters, especially the original characters). Momo and I are trying, so freaking hard, to get chapter 6 sent to me so I can post it. So there is that. Look for it. 
> 
> Also in case you didn't know, there is an accompanying series to this called **Tinkerbell Sucks** which will have both the Hale/McCall pack and the Volkov pack. It will be snippets from their lives at different points throughout the Some Kind Of Madness story line. Right now there's already two chapters up and I'm writing a third one I want to finish by the end of the week. 
> 
> ALSO even more so, the character page which is located [ HERE](http://cutestpixieyoueversaw.tumblr.com/Original%20Characters%201#_=_) has been updated to include The CRONE!!!!


	7. Time Is Running Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles isn't sure what will be the death of him, but if you had to point to a place it would be here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gasp* Another chapter? So soon? Why yes, another chapter indeed. Happy Birthday to ME!
> 
> Spoilers, they are getting out finally! It was suppose to happen four chapters ago but you know how planning sometimes goes when writing. I'm not sure if there needs to be any extra tags in this chapter but if you think there should be then please leave a comment or visit me on tumblr and tell me.
> 
> Still beta'd by **[Momo](http://archiveofourown.org/users/momorune/) **.

_"…I won't let you bury it_   
_I won't let you smother it_   
_I won't let you murder it…"_   
_(Time Is Running Out- Muse)  
...................................................................._

Lupe collapsed next to Stiles and gasped in shock and started to whimper. “Wha, why would they do this to her? She’s-oh god she’s-fuc.” Lupe wailed putting his hands over his mouth and rocking away.

Stiles ignored him in favour of looking over her quickly. Her arm was dislocated. He had been around Isaac and Jackson enough times after a particularly hard lacrosse game or training session to know the signs. That wasn’t even counting the large cut going down the same arm that looked as if it would need a good amount of stitches. Stiles shook his head to move past it. He needed to keep focused. Lupe was losing it a bit and he needed to take charge but first he needed to know what the hell he was working with.

Her nose was obviously broken and there were cuts along her temples and forehead. There was blood trickling out of her mouth. Stiles didn’t want to think about the fact she could be missing a few teeth. There was another large gash from her neck down past her collarbone and down to her breast. There were claw marks across her stomach that gouged in deep enough that Stiles was surprised he didn't see intestines. Looking down her legs he thanked his lucky stars she was wearing shorts. It made seeing to her injuries better. Her leg was worse somehow. She had a compound fracture; her bone was sticking out of the leg in such a gruesome way. Disregarding the amount of infection she was going to have because of the bone being on the outside and the conditions of their cell, this was bad. If Stiles didn’t hurry up and treat her quickly he was sure that she could suffer some long term complications. Meghan even had an obvious stab wound on her other leg that was still bleeding. Stiles gave a silent prayer of thanks to Scott for forcing him to help out last semester at the clinic and learn some of the first aid tricks he had. He even thanked Allison and Chris for forcing him to join them on that random Christmas hunting adventure last year. He had actually learned a lot about wounds and treating them.

Stiles nodded to himself letting a plan form in his head about what he needed to do. “Lupe, I need you to snap out of it!” He yelled at the beta grabbing an arm and shaking him. “I need your help to save her. Do you understand me?”

Lupe locked his eyes with Stiles, eyes flickering all around his face before he bit his lips and nodded his head. Stiles sighed, he knew the guy was hurting but he had no one else to help him.

“I need you to pick her up, can you do that?” He got a bobbing head in answer. “I need you to pick her up and place her in the open circle. Can you do that?” He questioned trying to make sure his voice wasn’t too strong for the beta. Lupe just picked Meghan up and walked her to the circle and placed her down in the same position that his body had been in. Stiles patted his shoulder as he assessed which part he should start off with first before moving down to her leg.

“I need you to come down here and hold her hips, okay?”

“Why? What-what are you going to do?” Lupe stammered wrapping his arms around himself.

“I need to get her bone back into the skin or else I wont be able to heal her. I also need to relocate her shoulder but this is more serious. I don’t want her to get too much infection, the healing is going to be hard as it is. If I let it get worse, there’s no guarantee how much more magic I’ll need to heal her. I don’t have an unlimited ammount of supplies or power. I haven’t eaten or even had a sip of water really in I don’t even know how long. We need to hurry with this.”

“You forgot, we don’t know how quick they’ll be back for me or you.” Lupe mentioned.

 Stiles titled his head in acquiescence. “So we need to hurry. Come on.”

Lupe held Meghan's hips down on either side as Stiles got into the position that would give him the best grip. If he wasn’t sure what he was doing, he would have tried healing her and letting the magic do the rest. But he wasn’t sure what the magic would do with the amount he had. He still needed a bit more of it to do what he planned. He had plans of his own that he hadn’t told Alek. Stiles blew out a breath and looked to Lupe before nodding his head. He gripped the skin on both sides around the break and slowly pushed down the right way making sure to take his time and let the bone slip down. He considered for a second that Meghan was lucky that it seemed as if it would be a bit easy to get her bone back in. He released a deep breath along with Lupe when the bone was finally back in. There was still blood coming out but that was one less thing to worry about.

“Okay, okay , okay. We can do this. We can do this.” Lupe insisted turning his head to Stiles in question.

“As long as you listen to me and do what I say we stand a chance of saving her.” Lupe nodded tightly. “Okay, I need you to keep holding her hips. She barely moved when we put the bone back in, but she might have gone numb down there. Which will be an issue possibly. Anyway, just hold her while I do this. Then we’re going to heal her with my magic.”

Stiles again got into position and breathed out deeply before moving in and sliding the bone back into place correctly. Meghan finally jerked as he was pushing it back in.  She whined out in a long pain filled gasp. Lupe whistled back at her and came closer to her face, sticking his wrist in front of her nose and letting her take a few shallow breaths of his scent. She visibly calmed down and relaxed. Stiles hadn’t realized how tense she was until then. He jerked his head to the side indicating Lupe should step away from the circle. The beta didn’t immediately move away, but stroked his pack member’s hair for a second or two before he moved.

Stiles moved back to Meghan and picked up her bleeding arm and moved it in a circle around her body slowly letting her blood mingle with the mountain ash and herb circle. He repeated a similar move on her other side before brushing the already fallen blood spilling out of her into the surrounding circle. “I need you to give me a slight cut on the already cut parts of my palm Lupe.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I need to mix my blood a bit more. She’s going to need more.” Stiles replied. Lupe huffed strongly before grabbing his palms and softly cutting him. Stiles gave him his best reassuring grin possible considering the fact he wasn’t a hundred percent sure about this working perfectly. Meghan was seriously hurt. He repeated the steps he had earlier when healing the beta, stopping before the smaller circle.

He made sure that everything was in place, and that he hadn’t forgotten anything.  He nodded to himself once and looked at Lupe once more. “Don’t worry. I’m going to heal her.”  Lupe nodded his head back. “I know you will.”

“In blood we are born and in blood we are torn. From the inside out, take out the poison that burns and harms throughout. Heal unknowns and all broken bones. I’ll pay the price, twice even thrice.” He shouted, bracing himself for the pain that was sure to come.

It came twice as fast and twice as hard as it had before. Raking clawed fingers sliced down one leg all the way to the bone and then up again. Sparks and fire danced down his other leg as tundra burned on the rest of his skin. Brass knuckled punches and broken bottle stabs attacked his insides as much as the outside of his body. He cried, he shouted, he yelled until it felt as if the punishment was his yelling itself. Dimly he felt Lupe grab a hold of him as his body started to convulse. He couldn’t say he saw him do it on account of the way his eyes were starting to roll back into his head. His fingers gripped down to the earth both in choice and against it, god his fingers. Each one felt broken in ways that thrusting your hand into closing hellhound jaws to protect your neck never could compare to. One by one his fingers were impacted with a hammer of torture and pain. If there was any silver lining he could find he knew it would be that there was no way Tinker-Bitch could hurt him quite the way he was hurting himself.

After who knew how long Stiles finally felt the magic in his belly calm down, felt his spark of power settle like a boiling kettle taken off the fire. With the calm came the dark clouds that settled slowly from the sides of his eyes and grew over them. He released the magic and  let the release of his mind come to him.

Who knew passing out was a gift?

~

 

“What are you doing?! He freaking saved your life! Leave him alone!” Lupe shouted causing Stiles to stare and lift his head from where it was resting on his chest. He wasn’t sure how long he had been unconscious for but he guessed it was long enough for yelling to have started up again.

“You’re not the alpha.” Meghan started in her very common tone of prickliness. She was reminding Stiles of a cactus the more time he spent around her.

“Your alpha has been protecting him and taking care of him. What else do you need?” Lupe shouted back. Stiles was glad he hadn’t yet taken down the barrier for noise.

“Stop yelling and sit down little cub.”

“I’m not a fucking cub you pinche puta! I’m sixteen. You’re _only_ two years older than me. Leave him alone, he saved your life. You were nearly dying and he healed you!”

“He’s not a fucking witch the last time I checked, so how the hell did he do it?” Meghan questioned.

“I don’t know! He’s something else that’s a mix of the three, why does it even matter? He saved you for crying out loud! You didn’t see him towards the end, he was coughing out blood.”

“Shut up will you! You’re being so dense right now! A little gobshite.” She fumed as her eyes flashed and stayed the bright blue in warning and promise. “If he healed me, if you’re not lying then who the hell told him about my life?”

“You know about that?” Lupe asked slightly deflating.

“Yes I know about that. Now answer the damn question, which one of you told him about me?” Meghan snapped back.

“You’re not the alpha Meghan!” Lupe started yelling again.

“I’m the alpha when your alpha isn’t around. The last time I checked I was the second in command.”

“You’re not the only second, Khoi is the second also!”

“Yes he _is_ , in times of _peace_. In times of war or danger I’m the damn alpha! What do you call what we’re in right now? Peace? No we’re not, so news flash little cub. I’m in charge until Alek gets back. Start talking or else.”

Lupe lifted his head up to meet her eyes squarely without flinching. Stiles had to admit he was impressed even if the kid was so cruising for a bruising as the saying went. He thought he should save the kid, it was only nice.

 “Aleksandr told me.” Stiles answered leaning away from the wall he was leaning back against. Lupe must have moved him a while back. He didn’t know for sure though since he had already passed out at the time. “Your alpha  told me as much as he thought I needed to know. Which means any dark secret you may have is safe and sound in that black old heart of yours.”

Meghan met his eyes and stared at him for a while as Lupe ran towards him and started to check him over slowly. He didn’t remember coughing up blood towards the end but he had to admit that he had been very much out of it by then.  

“How long have you been up for?” Lupe questioned moving to help Stiles get up.

“Somewhere around the time the yelling started and you tried to defend me, which by the way thanks for that.” Stiles answered trying to lean away from the younger teen and stand on his own feet but each time he thought he had a handle on it be fell back against the wall. “What the hell is wrong with me?”

“I’ve been draining some of your pain,” Lupe started getting a better grip on Stiles and moving him slowly away from the wall to a place right by where the second smaller circle was. “I’m not an alpha so I can’t exactly control how much I can take, sorry. I was just trying to help. Meghan could maybe-”

Meghan started a deep growl that came from the bottom up before snapping at her pack mate in what looked like pure annoyance. “What has Alek told you about volunteering people for things they never agreed to?”

“Why wouldn’t you want to help him? He needs energy to help us get out of here and you’re the only one outside of Ralf or Killa who knows how to do something like that.”

“Oh I don’t know, maybe cause I just don’t want to help someone who isn’t pack? For all you know, he could turn out to be the next Liam.” Meghan shot back with a crooked snarl of a smile.

Stiles didn’t need Lupe’s eyes to turn brilliant amber to know that something was being said that hurt him. He heard the way the guy’s breath came in deep and harsh. He saw the little way his eyes started to shut in anger. Stiles even saw the way that his hands started to curl into a fist.

“I don't know who the hell Liam is but I’m pretty sure I’ve never met anyone as awesome as I am. So, I’m pretty sure I’m not him. So don’t worry?” Stiles offered up leaning around Lupe to look more at Meghan than the younger beta. She bared her perfectly sharp teeth at him in answer.

“I don’t have time for this,” Meghan started crossing her arms across her chest and looking at Lupe with electric blue eyes that glowed like threats more than comfort. “What plan did Aleksandr have before he left? Or was he too busy flirting and sharing people’s life story to make a plan?”

“Qué chingados!” Lupe yelled throwing his hands into the air. “Why are you acting like this? You virtually never act this much of a bitch! I understand tu madre es una puta but why the hell are you acting like one? He’s not bad at all. And you know Alek wouldn’t do that. He would kill Stiles if he tried to hurt any of us, he swore to me.”

Meghan ran her hands through her hair before grabbing some and pulling it away in frustration. “I-I’m...we shouldn’t have been caught.”

“Seriously?! That’s what’s making you act like this? Aleksandr didn’t know we were getting attacked either. He’s here with us!” Lupe ranted on.

“I should have known!”

“No one knew! Not a single person knew that going out to get food would mean we were going to get kidnapped.”

“Plus it’s fucking fairies, no one can really say they knew how to be prepared against them..unless you’re already expecting an attack.” Stiles interjected as he paused what he was doing while the two betas were arguing.  

Both betas turned their eyes to him and blinked for a second before looking down on the floor to where he was pouring the last bits of mountain ash down.

Lupe cocked his head to side and squinted at the markings as if he could somehow understand what was going on if he looked at them sideways. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Making wards.” Stiles and Meghan answered in tandem with each other. Stiles looked at her as Lupe twisted his head to look at her also. She was frowning at the markings and moving her head back and forth as if she was reading words on a large page of a book and not swirls, circles, and more on the ground.

“How do you even know what they are?” Stiles asked moving back when she came closer to where he was standing.

“It doesn’t matter. You’ve be given all you really need to know about me don’t you think?”

Stiles felt his nose crinkle without control. “You’re really rude for no real reason...and it’s getting old. I know three girls who scare me more than you and only one is a werewolf.” He informed her, crossing his arms.

“Why are you making a ward...a ward of healing?” she countered.

Stiles looked at Lupe instead of Meghan and answered to him, “I know that Aleksandr thinks that he’s going to be thrown in here and that I’m going to heal him and what not but I never really agreed to that plan. I-” Stiles paused to breathe in. “I’m going to get taken next. We don’t have time for this, time is acting up. Hell we could have been here for months or-”

“We haven’t been here for months.” Meghan mumbled moving from an area close to the back corner that seemed to fascinate her.  

“Excuse me?” Stiles swung his head to look at her. “What- how do you even know?”

Lupe smacked his forehead with the palm of his head and rolled his eyes. “Meghan’s from Ireland dude.” When Stiles just rolled his head in a ‘so what?’ gesture he frowned a bit. “She actually used to live in place that dealt with the fae?”

“So that’s why you think you should have felt them coming, huh?” Stiles pondered out loud.

“I assure you it’s not in your best interest to piss me off.” Meghan warned standing up to look at him.  

“I assure you I don’t think I care about your feelings right now. Anyway, I’m going to get taken next, we need to get out of here as quick as we can.”

“What are the wards for then?” Lupe asked looking at Stiles and Meghan.

“It’s a healing ward. It’s used so that someone who wields magic can still have their powers use far away from them, even when they’re incapacitated.” Meghan explained leaning against the wall as is she didn’t have a care in the world. Stiles would have believed something like that if he didn’t have the pack that he did. Boyd, Erica, and even Jackson did moves like that from time to time when they were waiting to pounce but didn’t want anyone to realize it yet. “The question is, how many can be healed with this?”

“I’ve set it for two people; two full body inside and outside healing sessions.”

“You think you can do that? You think that you can take on that creature and still have some energy left to heal anything?”

“Look I don’t have a lot of ideas, do you have a better plan? No? Shut up then. If I get hurt at least you’ve gotten some time to escape. Personally I wouldn't complain as much as you.

At least you’re getting a chance to escape out of here.” Stiles said sliding his hands into his pockets.

“You need to know about Selene and Khoi, it’ll help the magic even if it’s wards.” Meghan offered up.

Stiles took it for the offering it was, “Yeah that would help.”

“Just don’t interrupt if you can help it okay? I’ll tell you about Khoi and Lupe will tell you about Selene.

"Khoi, who is actually named Muunokhoi, was born in Mongolia. He lived with his grandparents. One day he was walking at night trying to look out for his cattle, there was a sudden and horrible mass death of cattle going on in his town. People thought it was evil spirits or possibly it was another town trying to destroy their food. He got attacked one night by what he thought was a wolf or bear, he never knew at first. He just knew it had red eyes. So he goes home and forgets about the attack until one day he wakes up bloodied and half naked inside the carcass of a horse. The horse of the leader’s daughter, the same girl that he was courting. Imagine his surprise.

"Someone saw him and the next thing he knows he’s being taken to a cage to be kept as the town met to see what to do about him. They thought he was the beast attacking the cattle. He was kept for a month and the whole village watched as he transformed into a monster under the full moon. They planned to kill him in a week's time. But he had a very good grandpa and an even better grandmother. She baked him food and when they let her in to see him she unlocked the cage and told him to run. So he did, he ran until he was at the edge of town and his grandpa was there to take him away, leaving behind the only home they’ve known. They traveled for years until they reached Germany and he asked his grandpa go back home. Long story short, he was walking down the street one day when he sees a guy getting attacked and helps him out. Surprise, it’s Alek. The End.” Meghan informs him. Stiles just blinks at her before turning to Lupe.

Lupe shuffled his feet before glancing quickly at Meghan. “Um, I guess we don’t have time for too much. Um... Selene got kidnapped and turned into a wolf as payback against her dad, who is a diplomat from France for not giving into some demands. She turned on the full moon and her family reasonably gets freaked out. But she anchors herself really well and doesn't hurt them. Khoi and Alek are like traveling when they see this group of werewolves attacking her and trying to kidnap her other siblings. Like the badasses they are they stop them. The guys get hired as bodyguards and everything is cool cause they can so take anything that gets thrown at them until one day shit happens. It turns into a pack war and some Argent cousins are there and shit happens and pretty much Aleksandr kills the alpha and they have to stage Selene’s death. So she’s like officially dead and is pretending to be some long lost cousin of her family. Oh! Jace helped them.” Lupe nodded to himself looking at Stiles.

“No questions.” Stiles assured.

Lupe raised his hand into the air and waved it around. Stiles just raised an eyebrow at him in question but Lupe kept his hand up and started waving it around. “Yes Lupe?”

“There’s mountain ash, how are we suppose to place anyone in this? We’re all werewolves dude.”

Stiles turned slowly to Meghan who just looked at the both of them slowly. She huffed, glancing at Stiles quickly. “Did you use oak in this?”

“Why yes I did. Lupe gathered them himself.” Stiles replied

Meghan nodded. “Oak by a druid, which only druids or sparks can make wards, can act as barrier to the ash. The fact that he had you handle it before he did means it’s going to be having more of an affinity for wolves. We can use it. A better question though, what’s the word to activate it?”

Stiles smirked at her, “Why it’s Volkov.”

Meghan kept her eyes glued to him and slowly her frown started to lighten up a bit before she seemed to relax suddenly. She gave him a quick one jerk nod of acknowledgement. Stiles released a breath he hadn’t been aware he was keeping and thought that maybe he could take a few minutes to relax.  That seemed to be the wrong thing to think when Meghan and Lupe suddenly became rigid as they raised their noses into the air and sniffed long and hard. Lupe moved around the cell quickly finding a way to place his body as to cover the most area possible while Meghan cocked her head to listen for a few seconds before moving over to another side. The guards were back.

Stiles moved his body to a corner by the door that allowed him to be hidden enough that he could surprise them with an attack. He had to get taken by them, he didn’t have any other option.

“Sorry, I know this is a bad time but what about the mountain ash around the room? We can’t have you break the line you said, so how are we getting out of here?” Lupe whispered loudly to the room at large.

Stiles glanced back at him quickly before glancing through the bars to see how much time he had, not much. “Look, there is one loophole to mountain ash. If you use a body over the line, a body that’s not affected by the particular ash, then that body can be stepped on to pass over the ash and the maker won’t know you’re out of it.” He hissed back.

He heard a sharp bark of laughter from Meghan before he heard giggles. “Oh god,” she wheezed between breaths. “You know Stiles, if you live through this I owe you a good time.”

Stiles nearly replied to her before the door was being slammed open and he was swinging a fist into cartilage and elbowing into a stomach.  He didn’t think about the fact that in the corner of his eye he could see Aleksandr on the floor bleeding and sliced up. He really tried not to think about the fact that some parts of his skin looked as if it might have been flayed or burned. Stiles just kept up his attempts to attack, trying to break as much as he could. He was actually surprised with how much hits he got in before he felt the first knee to his stomach and slam to his face. He was somewhat glad he wasn’t that vain because he was pretty sure that as soon as he got out of this he was going to have bruises and possibly scars.

“Take him!” A male guard who sounded like the one who had brought back Meghan shouted in pain. Stiles hoped he hit him really good.

He felt arms wrap around his body in a vice grip and one arm wrap him into a headlock that was guaranteed to knock him out.

“He’s got energy to fight, I bet he won't once Maleficent is done with him.”

“Fuck you blue fairy I always thought you were a bitch anyway.” Stiles yelled at the female guard who held him, trying to fight as much as he could so that the male guard would hurry up and just throw Aleksandr in finally. “Hey did Santa tell you he needed actual helpers or did you just get thrown out of tooth fairy school, dip shit?” He added, baring his teeth. It got the desired effect because Alek got thrown into the cell without a second glance before the guard was advancing upon him.

“Hey talking primate, say hello to my buddy.” The male guard started pulling back his fist and grinning.

Stiles frown and spit the blood from his mouth to his face “Who, dumb and dumber?”

“The fucking sandman.”

~

 

 Stiles woke up tied to the same chair he had woken up to the first time in this place. His left eye felt swollen and if he had to bet, he was pretty sure that it was turning into a black eye right about now. His ribs hurt more than before, he felt blood trickling down his mouth, his legs and neck. His stomach felt queasy and if he could actually look himself over, he was sure he had the beginnings of a concussion. On pain of death he could admit that times like this actually made him consider if it wasn’t slightly worth being a wolf. He felt drained, as if someone had just sucked out all his energy. That must mean the wolves had used the ward already.

Stiles had other things to think about though, such as unraveling the ropes that locked his hands behind him. He sent a silent thanks to Chris and Allison for allowing him to have _some_ hunter training such as ‘ _how to get out of a chair when you’re tied to one 101_ ’.

“Stiles, Stiles, darling. I didn't know you missed me so much.” Maleficent crooned coming closer to him, tapping a fan in her hands.

Stiles looked at her and resisted to urge to snarl. She was covered head to toe in blood, which based on what he had seen, wasn’t hers but belonged to Aleksandr’s pack. He hated her. He hated her so much and if he could just move his body a little bit more then he could so return the favor she had given him. “You’re right, I missed you so much, as much as I miss rotten food. Just love that rotten, disgusting, and don’t forget, ugly food.”

The slap across the face was expected, but the cuts across his skin that stung as they opened up to release blood, was not. That fan wasn’t just for fashion, good to know.

She tsked softly shaking her head. “Such a shame, I would have thought you learned, but well what can I expect? You are only human at the end of the day. Yours is such a pathetic bunch.”

“Yeah so pathetic we hide in the shadows like losers but pretend that we’re somehow better than everyone else. Oh wait, that’s your race.” Stiles snarked back.

Maleficent stared back at him with wide eyes that quickly shuttered as a vein began to throb at the base of her neck. She threw the fan into the air before slashing her hands across in front of her somehow controlling it and slamming it in the opposite direction. She stomped across the room to the side and came back with a bucket of water and a rag, the latter of which she shoved into Stiles’ mouth, forcing it open with jagged nails that gouged and tore as he fought against it.

“I should let you bite your tongue off but then I wont be able to sell it at the market to the witches. Pity you’re not a virgin, you would have fetched for more.” She seethed before slapping him again. Once the rag was in his mouth, stopping him from doing more than moaning, she started to pour the water all over him. Stiles kept trying to shake the water away from his eyes and mouth so that he didn’t choke. If she thought water torture was enough to get to him to cry then she had another thing coming. He actually had been there and done that and had the damn t-shirt (Erica was a gift and Kira was a star).

Stiles only stared back into her eyes in defiance meeting them squarely without flinching. He could take what she brought. He started to rethink that though when she smiled and gestured in a come hither way from the side pulling a wooden cart closer to her. He refused to let his eyes enlarge when he saw the car battery on top of it. He started trying to move the chair left and right to back away from her as she started smiling bigger and bigger, but the damn thing was bolted to the ground.

Fuck.Fuck.Fuck.FUCK.

 “Oh Stiles pity I’ve stopped myself from hearing you scream.” She purred leaning closer to his face. Stiles stared at her a beat before jerking forward and head-butting her. She reeled back snarling with her fist clench. Maleficent turned to the battery and started to connect the clamps, all four of them, to Stiles’ body. One went to each of his knees and one to his belly button while another went to his right pectoral. “Don’t worry, this wont be the only lesson for you today. I’ve got all the time in the world.”

Stiles could only breath in and bite down on the rag in his mouth as she turned back and turned the power on. Stiles felt the shock go through his body and kept the clamp he had going on the rag, he actually was thanking the fairy-bitch for that. The pain, the sting of hundreds of bees and the burn like lightning stopped for a second. Stiles tried to breath in and calm his slamming heart that felt as if it was going to stop on him. He had tears streaming down his face and he couldn’t be sure but he thought he might have urinated on himself from the power of it. It felt like it was more than what she had first used but not enough to kill him on the first couple of uses and that was what he needed. He could get through this. He would get through this.

Stiles had a few lessons to teach her himself.

He was as ready as he could be when the power was switched on again. His body clenched up and shook but he kept a part of his mind on the task of moving the hands behind his back. He just needed to….right….

Maleficent stopped the power again and peered at him with her eyebrow raised and a smirk on her lips. Stiles only glared at her more before she frowned and clicked the power on again walking away.

Stiles went back to the ropes barely able to hear anything over the rushing in his ears, of his blood, or the pain that racked through him.

He was...he was nearly there...just a little...more. Just...a…little...more. Just-there!

When she came back around and turned the power off, Stiles slumped down deep into the chair as much as he could and hung his head and just tried to breath. He didn’t raise his eyes when she came closer and grabbed his chin to make him stare at her. He let the tears in his eyes fall as he tried to avoid looking at her directly. Stiles couldn’t let her know he wasn’t as defenseless as she thought. He was more than that.

Stiles was a more than a couple of pounds of sarcasm and wit. It took a certain type of person to run with wolves and unlucky for her, Stiles was the perfect person.

“You know, I would be so glad to let you end your education right now, but promises must be kept darling. Let's get these clamps off you, I mean they’ll get in the way of our fun.” Maleficent giggled taking off the clamps and moving the cart away.

She walked away to the far side of the room, her back turned as she kept talking to Stiles. He tuned her out and slowly released his hands from the rope and leaned down quickly to untie his legs, slowly stepping away from the chair. Stiles took the rag out of his mouth last. He glanced at her to see she was still talking and looking through what looked like torture implements. He shook his head and looked quickly around the room for some type of weapon that he could use at the moment, but all he could see was another identical chair close by that was unbolted. Shrugging, he lifted the mountain ash chair up slowly and walked towards her.

He waited until he was within swinging distance before he cleared his throat and swung the chair. “You want to dance? Let’s dance!” he yelled knocking her completely by surprise. Her head twisted to the right releasing a snap.

Stiles backed away when she turned her head slowly to him, fury in her eyes. Maybe he should have taken longer looking for a weapon he considered while ducking as she threw a scalpel his way. There was no way he was going to fight her without magic and win he noted as she swung her arms out and suddenly threw wood at him. He kept a hard grip on the chair and retreated a bit to the other side of the room, jumping behind a table and tipped it over to protect him as he planned. He looked at all he had, a mountain ash chair, and thought all that he could do, which wasn’t much.

“Maybe I can make them into stakes? Shit she’s not a vampire. But wait!” Stiles muttered to himself as he went about snapping two legs of the chair off. He held them in his hands and breathed deeply. Closing his eyes he thought about what he wanted, what he needed, what he _believed_ he would have in his hands when he opened them. ‘ _Iron and steel dusted wood that burns any fairy.’_ When he felt the spark grow in his belly and the warmth spread to his hands he opened his eyes and grinned at what he saw. The wood glittered.

“I’m going to kill you Stiles. But I’m going to do it slowly. And when I’m done, oh when I’m done, I’m going to find your pack back in your crappy town and I’m going to show them your head. I’m going to show them your head as I fucking cut them to pieces!” Maleficent roared on the other side of the table.

Stiles released a breath before he popped up, “You’re an assbutt.” He calmly informed her as he thrust the wooden legs of the chair into her eyes. She moved back enough that he knew he didn’t get to jab it in deep enough to kill her quickly.

Maleficent screamed in pain backing away from him clawing at her eyes but screaming only more each time her hands met the wooden stakes. Her yells were actually sweet melodies to his ears. “What did you do to me you maggot!” She cried still trying to touch the wood but jerking away each time she touched it.

Stiles walked closer to her and towards the door smiling. “Surprise, I got my Hogwarts letter bitch!” He laughed sure that he was fully in control. “Let me show you my second magic lesson, it’s called getting away.”

“You think I’m going to let you out? Oh you fool,” Maleficent laughed deep even though she kept jumping and twitching in pain. “I don't need my eyes to kill you. I’ve had magic long before you were even a little atom in the world.”  She snapped her fingers before a flash blinded Stiles temporally. When he looked again she was in front of the door, the only way out. She had blades in her hands and vines around her that kept whipping around her.

Stiles cursed his luck and ducked an oncoming blade and made his way as silently as he could towards a far table where he had seen a baseball bat and some mountain ash. He grabbed the bat and covered it in quick ash as he again repeated what he had believed in earlier, only this time he thought the bat would become iron and steel. When he felt the warmth he nodded to himself and looked at his last boss battle. He could do this. He was a champion gamer, this was just a game, where he could die for real.  He slowly walked to her ducking quietly and surely under blades and vines until he was as close as he could get to her without alerting her to his presence. He tried thinking of some way to get past her but he was actually drawing a blank when suddenly the door ripped open and he heard a voice he was so glad to hear.

“Hey she-bitch, come get some!” Aleksander yelled followed by a punch and grunt.

Maleficent screamed in anger and pain turning her whole body around to face Aleksandr as Stiles rose up behind her. Alek locked eyes with him and gave a slight nod as he ducked down and thrust his clawed hands up through her chest and Stiles started swinging as hard as he could repeatedly at her head. He didn’t stop until he saw blood and even then he still didn’t stop until he felt muscled arms wrap around him and hug him to a body.

“It’s over. She’s dead, okay?” Aleksandr whispered holding Stiles. Stiles took a few moments trying to breath and calm down. He just really wanted this to be done with. This was officially the worst vacation ever and he was pretty sure he was standing in brain and blood shoeless now that he thought about it and-

  _-and what?_

“Did you just kiss me?” Stiles questioned looking at the alpha who was smiling with bloody lips. He slowly licked his lips clean of the blood not taking his eyes away from Stiles. “You kissed me.”

Aleksandr shrugged, “What can I say, fighting turns me on. Which reminds me, we need to get out of here. Now.” He finished, grabbing Stiles and throwing him over his shoulder and running out the door.

Stiles took a second to process what he had just heard before he realized what was going on. He slammed his fist on the alpha’s back in protest. “What the hell are you doing? I can walk you know?”

“I doubt it. Remember how I said sometimes I’m going to make an executive decision without you?”

“What’s going on?” Stiles asked alert to the undercurrent of fear in his voice.

“Well, once we got my other packmates healed-”

“I only left enough for two people to be healed?”

“They shared the ward so they’re half healed but they said that was okay. Forget that thought, we need to get out of here. Khoi got Meghan to talk about things, this place is going to collapse as soon as Tinkerbell-reject dies.”

“This place is going to blow.”

“Yep, so hang on. We’re finally getting out of here!” Aleksandr replied turning a corner and jumping. Stiles looked at the ground and saw the bodies that they were leaving behind of some other guards. Another two turns with some more running and he was suddenly placed on the ground with Aleksandr’s arm around him.

He looked around and saw that Meghan and Lupe were both there along with two others. One was a girl who looked his age with long black braids. Her eyes were glowing amber which contrasted nicely against her dark brown skin much like the eye colors did for Boyd. The other one that was new had a light cream complexion and amber eyes that burned out of of eyes that reminded Stiles of Kira. Stiles guessed they were the other two, Selene and Khoi.

“So,” he started rubbing his hands together and looking around at the area they were at. It was a half circle that lead out to a corridor that most likely lead out to the cells they were at before. “Does anyone have any idea how-” Stiles cut himself off to look along with the others as the corridor they had barely come through collapsed in an explosion of dust and rocks.

“Well,” Selene drawled turning back to the room they were trapped in now, “if you all needed any motivation to figure a way out of here, that was it.”

“Meghan, what have you been doing?” Aleksandr demanded looking at his second in command.

“I have been trying everything! This is the only way out, no other way leads to anything!” She countered.

“But there are no doors or magic stones to press to find a way out.” Khoi added.

“We haven’t tried running through walls?” Lupe tried grinning slightly only to have Meghan turn around on him and snarl. Aleksandr roared back at her and flashed his eyes on her, making her stop her snarl and back away a bit.

“Lupe, normally you would have us all laughing but right now we need to be serious.” Aleksandr commanded him placing his hand on one shoulder.

“Honestly we’re dealing with magic though.” Stiles argued.

“So you think that’s a possibility?” Selene asked in disbelief.

“I don’t know, but we don’t know if this place is next or not but we need to think of something!” Stiles shot back throwing his hands into the air.

“If only we had something to hint at us…” Khoi pondered moving away from the group and looking around the room.

Stiles sighed and looked up at the ceiling thinking that if there ever was a time for a miracle, now would be it. That or a sudden spark of knowledge. “I believe I’m going to have a sign, I _believe it_!” He muttered to himself. The first water drop he ignored as sweat. The second and third had him opening his eyes and looking around the room before he looked up at the ceiling which dropped another drop. “Oh shit, thank you. Guys!” He called.

The pack moved towards him quickly as he pointed up. They all looked up and then looked back at him. Meghan was the only one who didn’t pause to try slamming him down, “There’s nothing!”

“I’m sure he’s going to explain it Meghan.” Khoi offered up and Stiles was thinking he liked the guy.

“Khoi’s right, I’m sure he isn’t a horrible idiot, I mean he knows this is life or death.” Selene suggested and Stiles had a sudden thought that Lydia would like her.

“This is going to sound crazy but what if we climb up on one another and go up?” Stiles informed them.

Lupe titled his head to the side and looked up quickly before looking back at Stiles and gasping in happiness. “We’re going to do the thing they do at the end of the Antz movie! We’re going to do the ladder thingy!” He shouted pumping his fist into the air.

Aleksandr looked at his beta in question and shock. “Are you serious?”

“Look,” Stiles started. “There is water dripping from the damn ceiling. Either that means there are pipes which we can use to lead us out or there’s a body of water above us. It’s a way out either way.” Stiles pleaded for him to take a chance on his idea.

“He’s right Alek.” Khoi assured his alpha nodding.

“Okay you heard Stiles and you heard Lupe. We are doing the Antz movie thing. Meghan and Khoi you’re with me at the base of it. Selene you’re going to be the next level with Stiles. And Lupe, you get to be the king of the hill.” Aleksandr ordered.

Everyone moved quickly, Meghan, Alek, and Khoi making a tight circle where Stiles and Selene stood on top of their shoulders and held onto one another while Lupe climbed on until he was sitting on Selene’s shoulders. He slowly stood up on her shoulder until he could nearly reach the ceiling.

“Hey Stiles, what would you use as a magic word if you were an evil fairy reject?” Lupe asked nearly touching the top.

Stiles looked up at him and frowned, Lupe wasn’t thinking what he thought he was. “Um...die?” He suggested holding on tight to Selene’s arms.

“Okay, this is on you. Die!” He shouted thrusting both hands to the ceiling... and actually going through it.

Stiles blinked for a second because first, what? And secondly, _holy shit Harry Potter was real._

They had bigger problems though because somehow Lupe was very right and the void was sucking him up and through to somewhere. Selene grabbed hold of Lupe’s waist and started to rise up with him. Stiles released her a bit only to grab a hold of her waist. He looked down and kicked Aleksandr to make sure he was getting the picture. The alpha only looked at him and picked Meghan up to have her grab hold of his waist with Khoi following behind. He didn’t get to see Alek grab on before he was through the freaking ceiling, which _ohmygod wait until he told Erica and Scott._

~

 

He was in water, treading water and trying to look around Lupe and Selene were already swimming upwards to what looked like light. Stiles figured they were using their werewolf ability to go so fast. He turned around and started to follow them as Meghan came shooting by with Khoi right behind.

He wondered where Aleksandr was when he suddenly felt an arm wrap around his waist. Stiles looked to the left and smiled as Aleksandr grinned back at him dragged him along as he swam. Stiles wasn’t sure how long they swarm but he knew it had to have been longer than a minute when he started to feel his lungs burn. He tapped Aleksandr’s arm and pointed at his chest. The alpha frowned before looking up to where Meghan was swimming right above them. She had turned back to him once Selene had caught up to Lupe along with Khoi. Alek looked at him and moved closer staring into his eyes. He waggled his eyebrows before slamming his lips over Stiles and pinching his sides causing Stiles to exhale through his nose as he inhaled the air that Alek breathed into his mouth for a few seconds before his cheek was tapped and he closed his mouth.

Stiles abruptly felt someone join him on his other side and turned to see Meghan join them as Alek started to push quicker and with more power fighting against the time limits his lungs had.

The burn was coming back and they were still swimming.

The whole pack had come back down to join them and he had already gotten a life saving breath of air from Selene and Meghan while Lupe and Khoi were swimming with him as the others took turns.

He didn’t want to think about what it would mean if he didn’t get out soon.

He didn’t want to think about anything other than the fact that the light looked so close and he would sell his soul to the devil if it meant he would be able to break that surface.

He didn’t welcome the darkness that started to creep into his eyes.

He didn't want to meet this darkness, he honestly wanted to fight it.

But it was hurting and he wasn’t sure he could…

 

... could keep his eyes open…

 

He closed his eyes and the eyes he saw staring back at him were green, multi-colored hazel.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am like not so much dying but really excited to know what you think about the chapter, how did you like my fight scenes (i swear it's not my best ability but I try), or the torture, or the characters interactions? Feedback is always loved. 
> 
> This is a heads up that I know I need to work on at least two chapters for Tinkerbell Sucks so that the timeline is caught up to this main story's timeline. I'm hoping that as soon as finals are over I'll have at least a solid week to work on this. Here's hoping.
> 
> Anyway I hope y'all are ready for what's coming next. :D

**Author's Note:**

> This was made prior to Season 3 coming out. So that along with my 'i don't give a damn' attitude is why Erica and Boyd live. And also why Jackson is still there. Kira is here because I love her and I don't give a damn, I do what I want. 
> 
> Yes I used a song lyric as the title for this fic, there will be song and poems or even book quotes for the chapter titles too.
> 
>  **Edit:1/28/14** So this fic was originally called Undisclosed Desires but then I actually took a moment to think about it and realized it didn't fit the work fully. So I changed it to the title you see here. 
> 
> But I totally hope you enjoy this.


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